The $15 bluetooth adapter I hated now runs my whole work day

I bought this cheap dongle off a rack at a gas station in Jersey City six months ago. At first the sound was thin and pairing took three tries every morning, so I kept shoving it in my glovebox. Then I clipped it to my old wired IEMs and switched to a low bitrate codec, it stopped cutting out during my commute. The battery life claim said 8 hours, it actually sits around 9 and charges in 40 minutes. Now it outlasts my newer earbuds on bus rides and the mic is clearer than my laptop's built-in one. I still won't trust it for critical listening, but for podcasts and calls it does the job. Anyone else find a piece of junk gear that turned out more reliable than the fancy stuff?