Wired headphones never run out of battery, wire can be tucked under clothes so won't get cough on anything. Also won't lose them as easy as tiny wireless pods.

Indeed it's a preference, but by removing the jack plug it's not. It's forced down your throat whether you like it or not to spend loads more money on something which never was an issue, creating loads more issues. Like batteries. Next to that they can get empty, they get worse over time. Or you lose one pod. "Just buy new ones!" It's all focused on make the consumer consume more, hoarding in exponentially more money and producing more waste. While I'm still enjoying my €120 wired headphones for over 15 years now, with exceptionally good sound quality. Except for the wire which I replaced 2 years ago, it's still as good as new. The jack plug of my previous phone worn out, but I could easily replace that myself. Costs? $2 plug, $10 mini screwdriver set (which is amazing and I use very often) on aliexpress. Want to replace airpod batteries? Can't, need to buy new ones.

I still have my old ipod 60GB, the first one with color screen. You know, when they forced the U2 album down your throat. It still works, so does it's original charging cable and wired earpods. It's over 20 years old. The charging cable which came with my iPhone 4 lasted for 4 months. The phone itself was functionally dead with an OS update. I'm never buying apple products ever again (same as Samsung, they went the same evil Corp road). Apple doesn't want you to buy quality, they want you to buy quantity. Don't fall for their scams claiming the non-existing problem they solved will improve your life.

I can still connect my old ipod and my current phone, to my audiophile 25 year old stereo through a tulp-jack cable. Or to any stereo with that cable at all my friends, in any older car with an aux plug or my boombox in the park.

Also, how would you connect a vintage synthesizer to airpods? You'd need to buy a powered jack to Bluetooth device, how dumb is that.