Wireless earbuds being that cheap isn't bad. What's bad is that the price of real wired headphones is artifically inflated by the licensing terms, to the extent they can't compete.

Which part of wired has expensive licensing? I thought at least 3.5mm and USBC were free to use.

The article was about headphones using a Lightning port, which suggests a phone without a 3.5mm jack or USB-C. (It must be an iPhone, so no 3.5mm port if it's newer than 8 years; and Lightning and USB-C are mutually exclusive).

Thought I would find out how much these cost straight from AliExpress, seems like searching for "bluetooth lightning" finds a lot of these.

Spoiler: Apple EarPod clones cost about $1.59, with free shipping over $10. Crazy.

For comparison, I read that the MFi license fee is $4 which is far more than the cost of the headphones themselves.

well, they are not really wireless.

Well, they are really wireless.

Wireless costs more because suddenly you need to deal with antennas and RF and whatever. Adding a wire back on top of that doesn't magically make it cost less again.

It also costs more because wireless devices need batteries, which this doesn't.