"AirPods" also cost about the same as one of my phones (a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 running LineageOS [1]) which comes with a 3.5" jack. With one fell swoop I get a phone which does not phone home (other than through the radio firmware blob of course), which runs for a week on a single charge and connects to all those things with 3.5" jacks which I happen upon, be it headphones or cassette adapters or older car radios without bluetooth.

To paraphrase some marketing slogans from the days of yore:

IBM said "Think" [2]

Apple said "Think different" [3]

I say "Think wisely"

[1] https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/whyred

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_(IBM)

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_different