I am definitely not trying to defend the manufacturers here, only point out that there are solutions for those like myself who want to continue using their wired headphones with newer phones.

Understood.

I agree with you with the SD card too. That one probably annoys me more. It made everything so much more difficult. Transferring files, backups, swapping out music, seeing pictures from a camera or drone… Made the device less like a computer in everyway.