Thankfully this isn't true, they've gotten a lot better! But I guess you mean it's still backwards compatible.
It's a big worry on the smaller AirPods, since those are almost 100% battery and glued together (and I'm not sure how you could build a product like that in a way that's both small and has a replaceable battery). For the big cans, you can pay $80USD to get the batteries replaced if the headphones are out of warranty (and, presumably, the warranty will cover the full cost of a battery replacement).
I don't know how these new headphones perform, but I would doubt that many people would get below 80% in two years (even with increased usage due to COVID).
It might still be worth it to get the warranty though, since it covers accidental damage (with a deductible), and the cost for the warranty is the same as the cost for battery replacement ($80).
And yet I can't sync my phone with my car, or my headphones with my laptop.
I still have non-A2DP headsets (the early 2000s ones you see in movies) that pair perfectly with a modern laptop, and Bluetooth 1.x PDAs (~2003ish) that pairs correctly with a modern BT headset (in HSP profile, so audio quality is crap, but then again it's the best the PDA could do).
Battery is the much bigger problem.