On paper only. And just because the bitrate is better, doesn't make it sound better. It just means that more data can be passed through with less compression. The implementation is rarely good, and my ears tell me without having to look and see that SBC is not really near as good as AAC even, even though they have recently improved the codec itself.
Yes, SBC offers more treble extension, at the cost of tizzy sound. All of your facts are on point, but those don't tell you how good the quality of the sound will be. And in this case SBC is no longer considered an option with 95% of the people buying new gear (and for good reason).
I absolutely agree with your last statement. But, the sound you hear will only be as good as the worst part of your chain. I have actually done this test with both the Melomania Touch, and the Hifiman Deva, and they do NOT sound very good out of SBC; though if it were all you had, one could live with it. If you are happy with SBC only, then $70 for a pair that uses a codec that is from two decades ago, isn't a bad price at all.
I agree with you that implementation plays a role, too. But note that this applies to the other codecs as well, not just to SBC.
However, I disagree with you that better treble extension of SBC vs. AAC comes at the cost of tizzy sound. Tizzy sound is the result of too much high treble energy (aka: treble spikes) at certain frequencies, not the result of treble extension. Actually, I can measure the frequency response of several TWS over SBC and some of them will have treble spikes while others will have smooth, downsloping treble. But this is always caused by driver quality / tuning and not by the codec.
Last not least, I also disagree with you that high bitrate SBC sounds good "on paper only". You've obviously not read the footnote on the Soundexperts page I linked, because there's an explanation that their ratings are based on actual blind listening tests, not just on theory. If you want, you can even take their blind test and help improve the accuracy of their ratings:
http://soundexpert.org/testing-room
Of course that doesn't rule out the possibility that you may be the outlier that has better ears than everybody else. But for the majority of listeners that have taken the test, the results show that they didn't hear any sound artifacts with SBC at high bitrate.
Btw, fun fact that most people who obsess about codecs don't know that their aptX, aptx HD or LDAC transmission actually happens to one earpiece only. Because unless you have a phone / TWS combo which supports synchronous streaming to both earpieces (
Qualcomm's proprietary TWS+ technology, still used by just a small minority of configurations) , only the streaming from your phone to the master earpiece will use aptX, aptx HD or LDAC compression. The secondary transmission, however, from your master earpiece to the slave earpiece, will always use ... guess what? ... high bitrate SBC.
