There are many phones with a headphone jack that have an IP68 rating which invalidates your whole point. If the headphone jack was so compromising then Apple would have needed to remove the charging port as well.

Phones became waterproof before removing headphone jacks became a trend. You’re talking nonsense.

Headphone jacks can be waterproofed, manufacturers are just lazy.

About 10 years ago I used headphones daily, now I do so just frequently enough that it’s irritating to realize I need to purchase a dongle just to do so and go “well I guess I’m not listening to music/podcasts right now”

What I learned when working for a phone manufacturer is that the headphone jack usage varies by product segment. Cheaper phone users use the headphone jack far more frequently than premium phone users, so they’d keep it on the budget models but drop it on the higher end models. They also did similar with NFC and wireless charging which was interesting…

I’ve literally never used the headphone jack on a phone in 10 years

We understood that as soon as you said “literally”.

I’ve not used on*star, a fire extinguisher or a #2 pencil in a while either, but I bet they’re important. Beware false consensus.

I do. I don’t use wireless headphones, and the dongle sucks. And hate having earbuds with a proprietary jack I can’t use elsewhere. Plus I used my iPhone as a synth/drum machine and needed to charge and play at the same time.

Most people don’t use them and never did, all the people downvoting are just salty because they’re not the target audience.