I cannot use headphones to counter noise and distraction. If I use music, I pay attention to the music. White noise I feel like I'm in a science fiction movie. And regardless of how comfortable a particular headphone may be, something on my head is itself a distraction.
Headphones may be at best a distraction mitigation, but what they really are is evidence that your environment is crap.
It works well for some people. While you may be able to code perfectly well with music blasting in your ears (loud enough to drown out nearby conversations) that is not the case for everyone.
I wear headphones at work but the volume (at which I can actually concentrate on my work) is only sufficient to drown out/filter random background noises (typing/mouse-clicks, HVAC, people walking by, etc) - if there are people having a conversation a few feet away my productivity plummets.