The fact that the 1/8in jack goes back to early telephones and is still a very effective (and universal) means of (universally) connecting headphones (that make use of this universal connection) to basically any sound-generating device on the planet (also with this universal connection), and does such a good job that with any decent pair of cans (also making use of universal connectors) the fidelity is about as good as real life, makes any of the circuitous, tortured arguments for moving away from the standard…stupid. If it’s about saving space, was anyone REALLY clamoring for that extra half a cubic cm? No, they were not.
I don’t care much one way or the other about Apple, but they wield enough influence that this is going to massively fuck up the market for audio products. Look out for numerous competing standards attempting to “solve” a “problem” that doesn’t exist and hasn’t existed since before our grandparents were born. Some problems actually are solved and this was one of them.