In theory, removing headphone jack is a good thing. This design has survived for decades purely because of compatibility, not technical merit. If we were to design headphone jack in 2016, I bet it wouldn't be this analog unpowered design. Headphone jack should be moving to digital signals and powered one.
Why? What makes digital superior in this case? The headphone is universal and ubiquitous because it is a dumb (as in terminal) device. It works on $10000 stereos and $10 children's toys without needing to think about compatibility, protocols, or interface specifications because of that.
Instead, you needed to think about impedance, power draw, and amplification. With a digital transmission, you move rendering the audio from the source device to the speaker itself, which gives headphone manufacturers a lot more freedom when it comes to acoustic design. If there were a universal protocol for music transmission (cough there is cough), and the digital audio jack were just as ubiquitous as the 3.5mm, it would have the same properties you mentioned. On a personal note, I actually laud the removal of the 3.5mm jack from the phone. Yes, it makes existing headphones a bit more cumbersome to use, but it is also a major design choice. Most of my headphones sounded crappy when plugged into an iPhone because it's just impossible to put a good amplifier/power source in such a slim package. This design choice forces more headphone manufacturers to consider how sound is being amplified and powered on mobile devices.