A long while ago i heard something (that might have been a urban myth) about Bose putting useless weight into their headphones to make them appear more "substantially professional". Is that a myth or they have pivoted towards actual quality since early days?

You’re probably thinking of Beats. But even then, it turns out that the original story was wrong because they were knock-off Beats.

https://www.core77.com/posts/38311/Teardown-Reveals-Beats-He...

There used to be a whole culture of bose kind of being a-holes. (Like 20 years ago.) I used to work at CNET back then and there was a kind of "yeah bose is ok" kind of vibe but it was always tinged with "but they want to sue you if you say mean things" whether they did or not.

As far as I know now, things have changed substantially. I would assume this includes engineering quality and honesty.

This bricking avoidance seems like another note in that positive direction.

My understanding of modern Bose kit based on RTINGS reviews is that it's fairly competitive in its price range. Still a touch pricey for what you get, but not bad by any means—like 2nd/3rd best, and occasionally punching above its weight for their midrange offerings. They seem to be #1 for comfort (headphones) though.

I don't own any, I've just read reviews from when I was in the market for new headphones and earbuds.

I believe that's always been a thing. A long time ago I read this teardown article [1] of real vs counterfeit Beats headphones. And even the counterfeit versions had metal weight added to make it feel like the real Beats headphones!

[1] https://blog.bolt.io/our-beats-were-counterfeit/

Those were Beats, not Bose, and it was true. IMO Bose does a great job of being both consumer friendly and high quality. There are others with higher fidelity for the same price (Shure, Sennheiser) but you often lose the comfort and portability Bose offers.

That was Beats. Pre acquisition IIRC, it was years ago.

Their aviation headsets are infamous for being heavy and the latest generation of the A30s haven't changed much except it's much lighter because they swapped out some metal parts for plastic.