It had been in the works for a while, but now it has formally been adopted. From the article:
The regulation provides that by 2027 portable batteries incorporated into appliances should be removable and replaceable by the end-user, leaving sufficient time for operators to adapt the design of their products to this requirement.
The same way it works with hearing aids. “Huge” is subjective. Airpods might be bigger. They won’t be huge. Tell me more about your first world problems.
I don’t think people without first world problems were buying AirPods and iPhones to begin with.