Personally, for my headphones, I found the manual reset was useful, but it looks like you should do the opposite of what it says. Basically, if the left bud is the one not working, reset the right one first, and vice versa if the right one is not working. So if the right one is not working, do it in the order of the manual. Seems like its a bug issue that once you understand works great. The problem does not seem to be the hardware.
On a side note of your digression, Not sure if this is a apple versus non apple product issue. (From my own and friends’ experiences and my partner’s tech background, apple works differently from non apple products and all of their products are essentially built so you have to spend money on their expensive products or submit to sub par use of non-apple accessories and apple computers/phones). Hence why I don’t buy apple products, the expectation of their products is everything else you have is also apple. So many other companies come out with really nice products too that I’d like to try or use, so unless/until you want to go full apple I tell people to avoid mixing apple and non-apple (or knock off apple) products for best utility.