Got them replaced both for free in an Apple store, I thought only one was bugging out but their test machine said both were "broke". It was out of warranty since well over a year.

I have done this succesfully as well, even in another country than which I bought them in initialy. Nearly 2 years out of warranty at the time of replacement, replacement itself was not a problem.

You can still replace them, even if they are out of warranty.

I believe this repair can be done out-of-warranty for free.

Yep, mine were totally out of warranty, I noticed some clicking mostly only when running, and they replaced them in-store for free.

I was worried they would blame my third-party tips (https://www.complyfoam.com/collections/comply-foam-tips-comp...) but as mentioned by the other poster, they remove the tips before testing.

This is in line with my experience, I got both AirPods Pro replaced out of warranty a couple weeks ago, even if only one of them was presenting issues. Apparently, the machine they use to check said both were affected.

I got them replaced in Spain while the original purchase took place in Germany.

i bet the rolling out of this program so close to the 2nd gen release is a subtle acknowledgment from apple that this issue is endemic to the 1st gen, and it's fixed now.

"Information as of 2021-10-01" - this isn't a new program

whoops! thx for the correction :)