Doesn’t Sony have the best codec on Bluetooth? It definitely has worse noise cancellation than my AirPod, but afaik it should have better audio quality on paper.

Yeah, but if you're using Apple phones/tablet/computers they only support AAC Bluetooth anyway unless you add a Bluetooth dongle, which kinda defeats the purpose of ever using Airpods.

At least the WH-1000XM6 also has better noise cancellation (on paper).