they should have abandoned their idea of particles existing as point objects with definite position and adopted the concept and language of probability distributions, rather than assuming a particle really exists and is just 'hidden' by the wavefunction

When people describe something with a probability distribution, they normally continue to think that it does have a definite property and they just don't know exactly what it is. To abandon the idea of a particle having a definite position is logically distinct from adopting the use of probability distributions.

Perhaps you mean that they should have adopted the view that the wavefunction is a physical object? That was what Schrodinger and de Broglie wanted. But particles show up at points, not smeared out. It took many decades for someone to think of many worlds coexisting inside a wavefunction.