Brush yourself off, man. Apple used to make $20 wired Earpods that had a better mic and driver than the $180 disposable Airpods. They are, in fact, trash. Expensive garbage, intended to occupy your landfill and drive an upgrade cycle.
It very well could be part of it. Part of it could also be the exclusive API access Apple has as a first-party manufacturer.
It's kinda like saying "The App Store is a great product, this is very likely why it is so popular". They're not really correlated; the App Store is the only product of it's class on iOS. Apple makes sure of that using their monopoly (eg. "vertical") integration. If you wanted to create wireless earbuds the same way Apple does, Apple would not give you the software access you need. Quality aside, Airpods are part of an artificially-enforced market segment.
They could be (and have been) the worst wireless headphones on the market - people buy them anyways. It's why designating Apple as a Gatekeeper is so important for a competitive market.
