So the little 1.5" adapter is too much of a hassle? Really? (It's not.)

I leave it on the end of my earbuds and it honestly isn't an issue after a couple days. It's not a failure point, and works no different than if you were plugging into a headphone jack.

Now had they instead removed the jack, and started using the male lightning connector on the end of earbuds, many more people would have screamed that now their earbuds were useless for anything but their phone/tablet.

It adds 1.5" to the length of the earbud cord. It's far from anything to get in a huff over.