We're not talking about the same thing here. First off a large jack to small jack adapter would be needed in rare circumstances, if you happen to use a pair of headphones that only uses a large jack with a small device like a phone, which obviously only has a small one.
That whole large jack discussion was started because of the quote from Wikipedia I posted, where they mention just how old the jack is. I'm guessing you haven't read the rest of the comments since you brought it up?

2nd of all a jack adapter is just "wire", it's passive ( doesn't have any circuitry), and doesn't require any support.
For a dongle type of adapter that's quite different. Software and hardware and compatibility come into play.
Lots of dongles have a DAC built into them which is separate from the phone DAC. It's duplicating something you already have, and if your phone has a good one buit into it (which it should), the flimsy dongle most probably has a very cheap one.
I have a dongle and it only works if I plug it in before taking calls. If I already answer and then use the dongle the sound won't work out of the headphones so it's useless...