i agree that its better to have "alright" than none at all but as far as complaining about free... nothing is free, you paid for that **** one way or another. they sounded good in my opinion, detter than most OEM for sure, but they "felt" cheap. if i was a company that rests its worth on making only the highest quality most ascetically pleasing devices and to top that, one of my biggest selling points is my audio, i would have wrapped those drivers in a better quality material, or just left them out entirely and saved my self a few dollars per unit... even the cheapest sounding sealed ear buds you can buy at walmart have higher quality externals. they clearly spent money on the internals for the head phones but went el-cheapo on the feel, just pointless IMO.
did this take away from the device for me? no. but it was the only thing in the box that didn't immediately shout "quality!". presentation means a lot in marketing and how the average consumer feels about the device before they even turn it on. just look at how much companies spend on packaging. HTC probably spent more on the fancy shaped cardboard box than those headphones and the box has nothing to do with the quality of the device. but if that phone their charging $650+ for came out of generic brown box or a bubble pack, you bet your ass that would make people question it before they even turned it on.
if your an xda member you are already more educated in tech then the majority of consumers, and that's why it doesn't matter to you, but if you knew nothing about a device before you walked into the store you might care a little more about presentation.
im not trying to say any one is wrong or argue but thats my opinion, coming from a business and marketing stand point it didn't make sense.
sorry to continue off topic.