Transistors "properly" connected—with power, diodes, capacitors, RAM and ROM requires consciousness to do the "properly" part and the result is not conscious itself, regardless of software. Whereas a neuron is an evolutionary entity that is metabolically alive and obviously has its proportional share of the role of perception and awareness built-in, IF that's how consciousness works and it's purely an organic chemistry phenomenon. Unfortunately, this model hasn't been able to explain everything so far.

In other words, you are saying anything that is "properly connected" to be conscious is conscious which is tautological and self-evident. The only problem is no one knows how to do it except for Nature which is not a someone but is the sum total of the Cosmic Legacy.

My main concern is not the possibility of artificial conscience (which I concede) but the MANY ethical problems that arise with mass-produced or trivialized sentience that make it a highly undesirable achievement at this point in our evolution.

If we are living in a simulation of sorts (higher-dimension dream), then it has obviously already happened so it wouldn't matter what sub-simulations we ourselves created.