You have to add $75 a year to the operating cost of these phones, for AirPods, which appear to have a design life of about 18 months, max.
I am very frustrated as the SE is really getting to end of life. I have bought 3 of them in the past month from various eBay sellers with good feedback. One fake, one had a badly degraded battery, and the other went into a reset loop after a couple weeks. There's not much out there. Apple's privacy is second to none, usability is very good (though if they introduce one more type of swiping I'm going to go mad. What's next, Force Swiping?), but the hardware is getting extremely inconvenient. Even my buddy who has large hands complains that the phone is too big and heavy.
When I got an iPhone 8, it came with that adapter in the box. I do keep a spare we had lying around in my cross-body bag too, for times like using someone's aux cord in a car.
Yes, it's another thing you can lose, but in practice I don't think it's really a problem -- certainly not the issue that would decide a phone for me, since rarely are all other specs equal.
There are many bluetooth headphone choices, plus an adapter for plugging in headphones. I'm just as sour about the death of the headphone jack, but I think it's hyperbole to say that $75/yr for airpods is required.
Some bluetooth headphones have outstanding battery life. Beats Solo 3 for example. Personally I have no reason to go back to wired headphones, just switching them between devices with a click of a button is so convenient.
I am very frustrated as the SE is really getting to end of life. I have bought 3 of them in the past month from various eBay sellers with good feedback. One fake, one had a badly degraded battery, and the other went into a reset loop after a couple weeks. There's not much out there. Apple's privacy is second to none, usability is very good (though if they introduce one more type of swiping I'm going to go mad. What's next, Force Swiping?), but the hardware is getting extremely inconvenient. Even my buddy who has large hands complains that the phone is too big and heavy.