This (i.e. that it was in order to pay for their funerals) is one common explanation, and arguably the most complete one. But there are others. According to the Live Science website: "Seamen proudly sported earrings as a mark of their travels and voyages. Earrings were given to young sailors to commemorate their first crossing of the equator, or when they rounded the treacherous waters of Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America.
"Earrings were also worn for superstitious reasons. Some pirates were convinced that wearing an earring would improve or even cure bad eyesight, as they believed that the precious metals in an earring possessed magical healing powers. Another tale was that pierced ears would prevent seasickness. Others believed that a gold earring served as a protective talisman and that a man wearing an earring wouldn't drown."
Live Science does however say that the reason earrings were made of precious metals (gold or silver) was "to pay for a sailor's funeral if his body washed ashore. Some seamen even engraved the name of their home port on the inside of the earring so that their bodies could be sent to their families for a proper burial. If a man died on a ship, the earrings helped to cover the cost of transporting his body home so that he wouldn't be buried at sea or on foreign soil."
One answer on Quora sums the argument up succinctly: "Basically the original reason behind all jewellery is the same: portable money." (I have paraphrased slightly.)
A website called Dusty Old Thing ("Antiques ... History ... Nostalgia") endorses this argument, adding that "Supposedly the earrings also served as hearing protection when firing canons since some pirates would dangle small pieces of wax from their earrings for quick insertion into the ear should firing begin."
An article on Atlas Obscura ("the definitive guide to the world's hidden wonders") describes the funeral idea as "the most popular myth" behind the wearing of jewellery by pirates. But it concludes that "not everyone is convinced that pirates' iconic earrings were ever really a thing." The article discusses the idea that pirates wore jewellery basically in defiance of laws that prevented them from doing so as members of the poorer classes. But in conclusion it quotes Angus Konstam, author of Pirate: The Golden Age: "Both [earrings and bandanas as parts of a pirate's costume] were the invention of the late 19th–century American artist Howard Pyle. When he was asked to depict pirates for children's books, he based them on drawings he'd made of Spanish peasants and bandits. So, his pirates wore sashes around their waists, headscarves ... and earrings."
An article on BodyArtForms (a jewellery sales website) agrees: "Howard Pyle, an illustrator and author in the 1800s, who wrote and illustrated a number of pirate themed books, put earrings on his pirates, and his images became iconic. Later, silent film stars like Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. would sport earrings when they played pirates in the movies. This, more than anything else, probably gives us the modern impression that folks like Blackbeard might have sported some hoops.
"That's not to say that pirates never wore earrings. In Imponderables, pirate expert Toby Gibson says that after the Golden Age dried up, many pirates began working in Asian waters, and the practice of ear piercing may have caught on there."
All of which goes to suggest (to me at least) that such questions as why pirates wore gold earrings may be a good way to get your mates guessing in the pub (if conversation is seriously flagging ... ) but they are not quiz questions.
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