The console section is extremely loud and allowing the use headphones gives a distinct advantage that the common player will not have.
Like I said above, if your goal is to create an ultra-competitive environment to the point of having headphones on consoles you’re going to have a hard time attracting those who just come to have fun, which is around 80% of the people that attend events. The more competitive something is treated, the less fun it becomes. That is true for every game on every gaming platform. Your goal is to find the common ground in the middle, where competition play is still fun. If you have players taking the win so seriously that they’re bringing headphones to get it, you need to swing back towards fun a little. IMO, anyway. At that point the game has changed from “who is better” to “who’s bringing the best equalizer” and while we’ve always had people bring their “special” or “good” controllers (lol yeah ok) we’ve never allowed players to so blatantly give themselves an advantage over the others.
What happens when someone brings a keyboard and mouse to a Halo Reach tournament? You’ve already started down the slippery slope, you’d almost have to allow it. Even MS said doing that would be unfair.