My mum can use airdrop. She sends us things. She doesn't need to install anything or configure things. She just uses the first-party UI.
It's the same with Airpods. Bluetooth headphones? Yeah, you can buy some for $20, who needs Apple ones? Apparently everyone. Turns out providing great noise cancellation and bluetooth that just works means the product is appealing to general consumers.
File transfer worked well on Nokia devices and was pretty stable. What was not, is bluetooth connections with audio devices. This is a solved problem now and my Xiaomi earpods connection is pretty stable. I remember having more issues with the Airpods.
File transfer over SSH also just works. You can even mount it, so you can work directly on the remote version without any program support. It was deliberately killed by computing-device-as-a-service vendors.
