[bzzzt]

USB-A to USB-C adapter dongles are standard and only cost a few dollars. That's completely insignificant next to Apples other profit centers.

Of course the vision behind removing the 3,5mm port was of a wireless future (and after untangling my Earpods for the 100th time I agree). There was a simple dongle sold and you can still buy Earpods with Lightning or USB-C port if you want wired. It's not like you are forced in any way to wear Airpods, other Bluetooth or USB-C headphones work fine. Airpods just happened to be a succesful fashion item. Removing the port allows for a bit more battery (yeah, I know they didn't use the space on the iPhone 7) and simplifies the design a bit (no DA converter needed, one less port that can break, no support calls from people who plug in an old Nokia 3,5mm cable thats wired different). While the gains are mostly for Apple I don't see simplifying something so less things can go wrong as inherently evil. If they really wanted to be evil they would have supported only Airpods.

Ps. I've used the 2019 MacBook pro that liked to spin up its fans but had no real issues with performance. Keyboard was okay too ;)