After some minor consideration, , I decided to get hands-on replacement mesh dots for my earbuds.
It turns out that Amazon sells these, because of course they do.
I picked up a set of pointy pointy tweezers to assist in putting them in place properly, because I didn’t have any and they should come in useful for other things as well.
I’m thinking silver was a good color to go with not only because it goes well with the blue of the earbuds, but also because it should prove useful as a visual for dirt buildup. This is not a case where I want black socks to never get dirty because they Get blacker the longer you wear them.
So now the one earbud that was missing a mesh, and therefore giving bigger sound, is giving proper sound while protected, and the problematic earbud with the dirty but original black mesh is functioning properly, giving proper sound, and is also now protected.
Success!