I have an anecdotal possible reason they were motivated: I broke four screens due to my wired headphones pulling the phone out of my hand/off a surface.
I now use AirPods, and it's, mentally, very different, since my head is no longer part of my phone.
I've had wired headphones save my phone from a drop
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I also use air pods now and am fairly certain this water fountain i walk past daily has a short causing some sort of arc that interferes with bluetooth as they always cut out walking past it.
I now use AirPods, and it's, mentally, very different, since my head is no longer part of my phone.