I love using my AirPods, but they have become insanely buggy as of late (like, they will crash while playing audio; audio stops, then transparency cuts out and comes back after a reboot) and I often come to dead or dying AirPods when I try to use them.

This is not the case for AirPods 1. I still have my original ones. You can leave them in the case for months and both will still have a charge.