True wireless earbuds don't necessarily have to end up as electronic waste when their batteries reach the end of their lifespan. Fairphone demonstrates this with the Fairbuds 2, whose batteries can be easily replaced. The earbuds also offer active noise cancellation and support for Sony LDAC.
As its a first gen product from a pretty green hardware company, it wasn’t super surprising to me they had serious issues. The real test will be to see if the second generation fixes those issues without adding a bunch more.