It’s weird to me that vanilla and chocolate have a similar history and applications but vanilla got designated as plain and boring at some point.

Ah, that makes me feel better. I’ve probably heard of it before, and just never looked into it.

The implication of this being that I am behind the times, stuck on outdated tech, and didn’t even know it is uncomfortable.

I wouldn’t recommend this if you fly very frequently, but you can take some ibuprofen or acetaminophen at the start of the flight / part way though and it should be active around the time you start getting sore.