It definitely deserves a place on the list.

In fact, it's the worst of the worst, since it's just plausible looking enough to be the only option on over a billion devices.

On top of that, the EU passed a bill to make them fix it, and they... didn't. If you have headphones that are too loud at 'unit above zero', and use the volume limiter in the device safety section to set it to a reasonable level, it just completely mutes the headphones.

This isn't a hardware issue. Bluetooth devices have an integer volume setting, and the "unit above zero" setting is definitely not '1' on iOS like it is on android.

I've hit this problem with 100% of the non-apple headphones I've used.

I upvoted you - at least, I hope I did. HN's vote buttons have such poor UX that a) it's difficult to hit the right button b) it's impossible to know, after doing so, whether you even hit the right button!

I experienced the same "muted, TOO LOUD" when I bought some very sensitive IEMs, but fortunately I have a rooted Android where I can customise the volume control curve, so I moved more of the steps down towards the lower end of the DAC range and made the loudest just a little beyond "threshold of pain".

That would be interesting to have the volume bars logarithmic instead of linear.

The focus ring on manual cinema camera lenses are like this where there is 270° or rotation from near to infinity giving a human plenty of room to move while AF lenses only have 90°. The distances are much smaller and harder to get smooth focus pulls and feels much more linear. So yeah, not the same, but similar-ish in that there's not enough action in the sweet spot and too much in extremes

If you long press the volume bar in control center then it opens a larger version you can drag to adjust more precisely.

The same with brightness. I have a shortcut to lower the white point because the lowest brightness level is still far to bright in complete darkness.

the difference between 0 and unit above 0 on iPhones is about 30% volume.

I have found that when playing audio to a HomePod, pressing Volume Up on the phone increases the volume by 1.

But if you immediately press Volume Down, it goes down by 0.5. So, with two button presses you can get the half-step increase you wanted in the first place.

It's like adding "a little" to a volume change command with Siri.

  "Siri, turn the volume up a little" turns the volume up 0.5.

  "Siri, turn the volume up" turns the volume up one.  

  "Siri, turn the volume up a lot" turns the volume up two.

In macOS, there used to be a modifier key to have the volume change in half-steps, too, but I've forgotten what it is.

I think the only place that Apple has done a good job with volume controls is the AirPods Max. But even there, I'd like more granularity at the low end.