I prefer no headphone jack. The internal space can be used for other stuff. If I need wired headphones I’ll use the charging port otherwise wireless is great
Apple removed it so they can sell you a $40+ adapter or $100+ earbuds. Google in response made ads for their pixel line mocking that they still have a headphone jack and apple doesn't have one, then the next version of the pixel released without a headphone jack either. Once those 2 stopped putting them in, most other phone manufacturers followed within the next 2-3 years.
What they did absolutely worked though. Over the years I now have 3 sets of wireless earbuds, Jaybird Vista (~$160 at purchase) Jaybird Vista 2 (~$180 at purchase), and Sony WF-1000XM5 (~$300 at purchase), and 5 either usb-c to 3.5mm jack or usb-c to split a type c/3.5mm headphone jack ranging from $10-$50. Of the 5 cords only a single one of the splitter and a single one of the adapters provide audio that doesn't have a constant electrical hum or making the audio sound like a tin can. The Bluetooth earbuds aren't all that impressive sound quality wise to the point that I think a decent pair of $40-60 wired headphones would be on pair with them and they are so inconsistent. They are constantly connecting to the wrong device, random disconnects, random desynchronization between the 2 sides, battery life being like half of what they say it will be, one side dying while the other side has 20% left, you have to have the charging case with you in order to restart them sometimes when they just refuse to connect to anything. All these annoyances added to save $5 on a decent DAC and jack that anyone could plug into with a standardized plug to make sure you and I are pushed to but these earbuds nobody was really adopting until they manufactured this issue and the adapters that literally didn't have to exist until this that you have to take a gamble in when buying if they are actually using a good internal DAC or of you're going to be listing to a tin can.
Original iPhone was an iPod Touch with a SIM card & the ads were all about black silhouettes with white earbuds in. You let Tim cook & you start losing functionality as Apple transitions into an ad platform with all the data they have harvested.