Yes it's rude, and yes AirPods look distractingly stupid sticking out of people's heads, but what's most important here is that we preserve the social cue that

Yes it's rude, and yes AirPods look distractingly stupid sticking out of people's heads, but what's most important here is that we preserve the social cue that someone wearing headphones does not want to talk. Putting on a pair of headphones/inserting earbuds is a very useful means of saying that I'm busy with/focused on something else or simply do not want to be disturbed. There aren't many other discreet/polite "Leave me alone" signals out there. Please don't ruin this for us.