Not a good trend I want to see, especially for flagships premium phones. Samsung already started it by not including any headset with the Note 20 lineup (although the pre order promo would get you their TWS buds).
Apple, considering their prices will be even higher than Samsung in my country, is not doing anybody any favor by taking out the EarPod and charger. It will only look bad for Apple. We have $200-$400 phones shipped with fast charger and headset, but not a $1000 phone? And yes, the price of the base iPhone 12 will be probably close to $1000 in my country.
And the environment angle is weak, considering that Apple is still shipping those chargers and EarPods separately as stand alone accessories. I mean look at those 5W iPhone chargers Apple has piling up in their stores.
Not cool Apple, not cool.
Let's be real. If Apple really wanted to reduce waste, they would stop producing and selling iPhones cases in a zillion colors.
Cases sell for $39 to $129.
Leaving out power adapters and EarPods saves Apple around $5 per box.