[spr93]

As others have pointed out, you're wrong about USB-C's minimum standards.

But more important, markets work best when consumers have good information about what they're buying.

Lightning always works as expected. Give me a Lightning cable and a Lightning port and I know what they'll do. Comparison shopping for a Lightning cable is easy.

But making an educated decision about which USB-C cable to buy requires understanding an increasingly complex matrix. You cannot just look at a USB-C cable or port and know what it is; you've got to parse each device or cable's spec sheet (if you can find one). https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/breaking-down-how-us...

The possibility of lock-in to a proprietary system is one piece of information, but consumers aren't getting screwed by lock in to Lightning connectors. It's easy to find a cheap Lightning cable that performs as expected; it's easy to comparison shop for them on price.

Consumers are, however, wasting a lot of money on USB C cables that don't do what they expect because the USB-C "standards" make it extremely difficult for ordinary consumers to know what they're buying.

[scarface74]

When I first started traveling for work with my MacBook Pro in 2021 and my portable USB C monitor, I would often have the wrong USB C cable and I didn’t know the vagaries of USB C.

I was at one of my company’s sites (I work remotely) and even the IT department didn’t have a “standard” USB C cable that could do 100W power and video over USB.

I ended up ordering one from Amazon - and having it shipped to my company’s office. I work at Amazon (AWS).