You better not be driving with a headset on. That's idiotic.
And also illegal in a lot of states. But you can always use an aux cord to play music from your phone or talk on speaker without a full Bluetooth integration.
At that point, you may as well use Bluetooth, which connects automatically every time you enter your car (read: easier). Fumbling around with wires just isn't necessary; technology has [mostly] superseded the need for them.
I decided I wanted nothing to do with something more sophisticated than an iTrip or an aux jack on my family vacation to DC back in 2010. Whenever I drove to/from college, I'd prepare an on the go playlist on my iPod for the trip, plug in the iTrip, set it to a radio station that wouldn't have much interference, and push play (I hadn't yet gotten into setting radio presets across frequently traveled corridors, and my car's entertainment system consisted of AM, FM1/2, and a cassette tape player). Instead of using that, we instead used my Mom's Civic's USB connection. Big mistake! The car took over complete control over the iPod, its interface was far inferior, and my prepared playlist was completely inaccessible. It took over 30 miles just to figure out how the thing worked and get it to play an album.
Yeah, never again. Plus using things like USB/bluetooth/etc. (basically anything more sophisticated than the analog audio-only connection of an aux jack) has privacy and security implications when you eventually get around to replacing the car, especially since the typical car's software security makes the initial release of Windows XP look like Fort Knox.
I had to look up "iTrip" (had not heard of it). Never found those systems to be either reliable or even sound decent. The aux-tape deck, on the other hand...

Your experience with the USB/iOS interface has been largely superseded by Apple Carplay. For us Android users, where Bluetooth was the only option for years, Android Auto is the new interface. I would have to agree that the older USB interfacing system, where each car had a slightly different interface for interacting with an iPhone or iPod, was far from an enjoyable experience. I had an iPhone for one year between the purchase of my 2015 Golf, and the purchase of an Android phone, so I got quite used to the experience in my car. All told, it was fine for me. It kept my phone charged, and all of my playlists and albums (even those from my Apple Music subscription) were all there
and accessible by voice control. The car didn't have an aux port, but I didn't want to fumble around with my phone in my hand while driving anyways, so the Golf's interface kind of had to work. It also kept me from having two cables plugged into my phone (one for audio, another to charge).
With the advent of Carplay/Android Auto, it's a totally new experience. One designed by the phone manufacturers, and it's light years ahead of the USB/iOS interface. Definitely check out a system if you haven't yet. It's not perfect, but (especially for those of us in states where holding a phone is illegal) it works exceptionally well, and is controlled almost entirely by either Siri or the Google Assistant, which are both exceedingly good at what they do (quick and accurate).