The first couple of tours I did were without anything to listen to. Frankly, I spent much of the time humming the same few bars of some song over and over again.

While I would take tours without something to listen to, I enjoy it more with a good book or good music to pass the time. We all carry things that others see as useless weight. To not use a new device just because people in the past made do without it seems a bit limiting, in my view.

One could also ask "What did riders do before derailleurs were available?" as an argument to tour on single speeds.