Some of my cables are in the $100 range. They aren't fraying for many years, they're outstandingly well built. This is the benefit of detachable cables, is the ability to buy third party. Apos makes a really nice, durable cable, that never gets bent out of shape. The point is that you never have to replace the entire unit.

Lithium ion batteries will degrade over time. It's an inevitability. The cost of replacing an entire set of AirPods is far more expensive than replacing one cable every thirty something years. They're unrepairable.

The AirPods Max are an excellent example of the issue. Big, expensive headphones that have peak battery capacity for three years, if you're lucky--as opposed to the Sennheiser HD600, a set that people have daily driven for thirty years straight, sometimes replacing a cable, sometimes replacing an ear cup. Components, versus entire units.

I'd rather my headphones not be a subscription service.