Maybe that was their intention or maybe it wasn't. But there are people in this thread that have posted that they have hearing problems and a feature like this will help them with playing it. Isn't that a good thing? It's optional so you won't be bothered by it as long as you don't hit R2 while you aren't moving or stalking.
What? That wasn't the issue. It was brought up that listening mode should be different, and then I brought up that listening mode should be a mode where hearing is greatly amplified. Someone brought up the point that without surround sound it would be challenging to pinpoint sound.
Then my counter argument was the player would have to guess where enemies were and how it would a be risky way of traversing unknown areas. When you say hearing problems I imagine you meant people that are hard of hearing, while this mode could potentially help those people, Naughty Dog didn't create this mechanic for people with poor hearing.