you should also consider the time it takes to charge the case and the times when you want to listen to music but alas, you forgot to charge your earphones! The jumbled mess of earphones don't need to be charged.
The airpods are the only wireless headphones I've owned where this is pretty much a nonissue in practice. It's easy to develop the habit to put the case on the charger when not on the go and to put the headphones in the case when not listening. At least for me those two things is sufficient to pretty much guarantee I'll always have charged headphones.
>It's easy to develop the habit to put the case on the charger when not on the go and to put the headphones in the case when not listening.
Except the original post said to "count the time you spend untangling the cord" (which, for most good, flat-wire headphones is almost zero). Habit or not, charging takes more time than properly rolling the cord on wired buds.
That's an understatement. If your fine motor skills aren't impaired, you should spend maybe a few minutes each year rolling and unrolling your wired headphones. I'd argue it takes nearly as long to put your AirPods in their case and set them down on a charging station.
I’ve never thought of charging my AirPods or the case outside of plugging the case for half an hour once a week. I don’t even check the battery percentage.