My thoughts on it: cool, now give it a headphone jack again and I might buy it.
I'm not buying a phone that requires $100 wireless earbud DLC (which honestly feel like just another thing to become e-waste in a few years when the battery gives out).
My soundcore wireless headphones have lasted longer than any pair of wired headphones I've ever had. Going on 4 years now and just as good as the day I bought them. They were only $70 too. Not saying you're wrong but there's reasonably priced quality ones out there if you look
Do you spend $70 on your wired headphones though? Or are you comparing the durability of cheap crap wired headphones to decent value budget wireless headphones? I have both a pair of Soundcore wireless headphones and a couple of pairs of wired headphones at home that all cost around the same amount and I'm certain I could smash the Soundcore headphones into tiny pieces using the wired ones and the wired ones would still work fine.
I spent $30-40 a few times on some wired headphones. This was around 10 or so years ago so, what 50/55 in today money? Maybe more. They'd last me 8 months to a year instead of the 3 or 4 from the cheap ones but eventually the wire at the buds or the aux plug would wear out from being shoved in my pocket, bag, etc. For everyday use I prefer wireless. I have a nice turntable, amp, and speakers for when I want to listen at home. Headphones are exclusively an "on the go" thing for me and my several years old set of BT headphones do the trick just fine
I know the removal of established standards that people use is a bad thing, but I don't know why people still pretend wireless headphones are suddenly the only option like this is all a conspiracy to sell planned-obsolescence tech and track everyone via Bluetooth. Adapters might not be ideal in every situation or for every use-case but don't pretend most people can't just leave one attached to the end of their headphones!
Fair enough, adapters do exist, but as you point out, there are situations where that is not ideal. On a long flight, for example, where I might want to charge my phone and also listen to something, or (in my case) someone who does some amateur audio engineering work on the side, where having the ability to simply wire in a device to play some audio is a big plus. My biggest problem is that phones from five years ago could do both wireless and wired headphones just fine, no adapters needed. What have we gained as consumers by the loss of one of those options?
I think regularly taking long flights and tinkering with audio equipment are both niche enough use-cases to justify looking for phones that cater to your niche (I.e. have a headphone jack). As for why that is now niche, you often hear suggestions of improved waterproofing and/or more internal space for other things (or being thinner).
Galaxy S9, and most likely a Sony Xperia 5 IV (or 5 V, since that's supposed to release in a few days). Honestly I'm using the S9 until it completely gives out on me.