Look before I even say anything else, putting pro in quotes is a just plain childish thing. I could run down my pro bona fides but it does not matter.
I've been in pro work that uses headphones off and on since the 90's. Okay little man?
As far as a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter, that is not even an issue. They arecheap, tiny, captive adapters. I leave one plugged into the front of all my MOTU units in case I need to troubleshoot. I have a couple in the pencil can on my desk. There are one or two in my messenger bag, and in my camera bag and in my stage box. Because they are cheap as a bottle of water, and like a bottle of water you can find them almost anywhere. Radio Shack, Walgreens, B&H Photo, Guitar Center, Monoprice etc.
They are also passive components. You can wash a 1/4-1/8th adapter with your jeans and not even worry.
Now a lightning to 1/8th adapter will be an active device. Will cost more than $1, by a fair bit. And will only be available from Apple and a few other places. It will likely be bigger than a 1/4-1/8" adapter. And wont take to being washed in your jeans.
More important. If I leave the house to ride the train in to town and forget my 1/4 to 1/8" adapter I am not stressing, my phones plug right in. I only need those adapters next to the kind of big heavy things that have 1/4" headphone jacks. Mixers, high end hifi, my old DAT machine for when I need to play an old DAT

.
When you need the adapter just to hear your phone that is kind of dumb.
Also, how about my mom, and your uncle and Billy-Bob over there that dont care about audio or listening to music on their phones. They just want to plug in headphones while they talk on the phone. Now they need special headphones?
I had a hard enough time selling my mom on the idea of stepping up to UrbanEars over the $2.99 garbage CVS sells.
Forced obsolescence is nothing new from Apple. (Magsafe wasn't that much bigger than Magsafe2). But nothing is wrong with 1/8" jacks.
Frankly I dont get why Apple is always fixing things that aren't broken when Xcode still crashes pretty regularly, and just about every new IOS update screws the pooch in some regard. I still cant get over that they shipped the current Mac Pro with no Kensington Lock Slot. Yeah great, my $10k computer that fits in a backpack, cant be secured to a desk? Seems like Marketing is driving the car.