Before getting the AirPods I agreed with you, Bluetooth headphones were much more hassle than they were worth. But the AirPods do really eliminate all of the inconveniences I had with Bluetooth headphones. As for whether they are worth the cost difference over wired headphones, I suppose that’s a personal preference, but I love the freedom, and since I walk many miles every day listening to audiobooks not having a cord to get caught on things or needing to be routed through clothing is a benefit for me. Also when I’m walking with my girlfriend we can each wear one AirPod and listen to something together without needing to stand within a couple feet of each other and have the awkwardness of a physical tether via a wired headphone splitter. I realize your comment is more snarky than practical, but it might be worth getting one from an Apple store and then returning it within their return policy just to have a chance to play with it and see how far the technology has evolved, it’s much more improved than you might expect.

And even if the airpods aren’t worth the investment for you personally, the fact that Apple is innovating here will hopefully push other manufacturers to innovate and maybe someday all Bluetooth headphones will be as painless, even ones that are significantly cheaper.

As an analogy, I hated the iPhone in its first few years on the market. I was perfectly happy with my windows mobile smartphone with its QVGA resistive stylus-based touchscreen, enormous thick physical keyboard. I thought everyone that paid $800 for a sexy but functionally limited iPhone was a sheep. But Apple forced the smartphone industry to play by a different rulebook, and now I’m pretty excited with the levels of innovation that happens across all manufacturers.