3.5mm is an inherently weak connection type due to the small springs in the female sockets and also the quality of the connector including quality control variances, and how much stress the user places on it.
Better cans used to use 1/4" instead for this reason, but today everything needs to be shrunk down to near the point of failure in normal use, USB-C included.
Any audiophile would recable their perferred cans with longer wire and a 1/4" plug, then if your source is a PC with only 3.5mm out, either go digital to a DAC having 1/4", or wire up whatever else does the trick.
Damaging the headphones isn't much of an issue, rather the issue is almost entirely wearing the spring contacts in the female socket whether on/in the extension cord or the PC, then you get loss of a channel.