hates the power being exerted for such a selfish reason.

I just don’t listen to audio on my phone without playing it through a wireless speaker, or playing it through the built in speaker.

You do realize that playing music on anything but a tiny speaker requires more power than BT+headphones? Even playing it loud in the built-in speakers can be note wasteful than later versions of Bluetooth.

Bluetooth transmission power costs are insignificant. But you don’t need to justify preferring the option to have regular wired earbuds on a phone.