You weren't aware that the iPhone 8 didn't have a headphone jack, before spending your $1000? And didn't discover it missing until after the return period?
Good Lort, of course I knew it, I follow all the developments closely.
I bought it
anyway because even though it's annoying, that one negative aspect of the new iPhones introduced in 2016 and going forward is
still not enough to outweigh the positives for me, which are iOS itself and the Apple ecosystem such a iMessage and Apple Watch which I truly value.
I've had Bluetooth receivers for my wired headphones going back a few years, and Bluetooth headphones as well -- this isn't new to me, and most of the time it doesn't impact me at all since the most common use case for me is Bluetooth headphones and sometimes wired headphones via small, pocketable Bluetooth receivers.
However, with my 6S Plus and older iPhones, I was able to plug straight in without a dongle for the occasions where I didn't happen to have a dongle or Bluetooth receiver and just wanted to plug into a friend's car or home system without Bluetooth -- or test wired headphones in store displays where they let you plug in, which is what I tried to do the other day before I laughed and remembered I couldn't do that anymore. (I don't carry a dongle with me everywhere!)
To me, that is an obvious degradation of the iPhone as a true iPod, as it was when Steve Jobs introduced iPhone -- no dedicated music player sold today would sell well without a standard 3.5mm jack and so that means, to me, that iPhone is no longer truly an iPod anymore. I live with that and that's fine, just pointing it out.
(In fact, what I did the other day to test headphones is take in my little FiiO M3 portable music player -- I happened to have it in the car, but if I hadn't, I would have been SOL...)