[HarHarVeryFunny]

Could be part mindhack! I remember Apple's iPod advertising campaign which centered around silhouettes of hip looking users with the trademark white dangly wires snaking into their pocket. I guess with this desirable tech hidden in your pocket, the wires were the best way to recognize that someone had one!

I guess since airpods are visible (and expensive) they are now the desirable focus, and anyone with wired earbuds is hopelessly out of date!

[autoexec]

Making them stick out visibly from the sides of people's heads was absolutely a design choice so that people could be "seen" with the product.

Apple is very big on being a status symbol which is why they put a giant shiny (at one point glowing) logo on their laptops and why they spent a lot of money trying to convince iphone users to not use a case which would hide the logo.