You are aware EarPods are included, right?For a $1200 phone this should have been included!
Apple is having trouble keeping up with demand for AirPods, so it would drive up the price of AirPods for the rest of us due to scarcity if they included them with the 218 million iPhones they sold last year.
I'd rather be able to buy the AirPods alone than to have to buy a new phone to get them.