I consider myself lucky. I’ve been playing heavy metal professionally for over 25 years and rarely wore earplugs. Had stacks of Marshalls behind me. No problems. Now that I’m older I do wear earplugs, always military ones, never the crap foam ones.
I abused my ears massively playing loud music in my teens and twenties. Loud amplifiers and hard hitting drummers in small rooms. I don’t know how I managed to avoid hearing damage but somehow I did.