You raise all good points, the sturdiness of lighting is understated by the industry, and this audience is perhaps not familiar enough to have that impression.
As testament to the durability, the lightning connector was sufficiently durable that Apple would display the iPhone on a spike with nothing more than the lightning connector at the very tip to hold up the phone, constantly being handled and replaced by curious store visitors - this approach was also mirrored in the lightning dock design, where the phone was held in place (at an angle no less) with no other secondary support, only the singular lightning connector holding up the phone with such robustness that one could interact with the phone without concern.
Lightning is and remains to be incredibly durable and sturdy, far exceeding the spec of the type-C connection standard. For a phone or accessories it's a much more pragmatic connector, and a pity to see it go.
USB-C because is not engineered for this level of abuse. From a fatigue perspective USB-C is absolutely a step backwards, tongued designs are weaker, there is no getting around that. I will be interested to see how apple show USB-C iPhones in store, if they keep the lightning-plinth or utilise a design with a back support to limit the wear on the plinth's connector.
-- From this point is a commentary on the politics that helped influence this change, feel free to skip it. tl,dr: The laws surrounding USB-C are short-sighted, focused on the wrong aspects of computing waste, and create a future problem. --
The dogmatic persistence in unifying the world on the cable of the day is short sighted and disappointing politicking to me. Type-C will be superseded, but getting the critical mass to transition to a new standard will be muted because manufacturers can't legally move major products to it. Legislators have created a problem for the not-too-distant future, there will be temporary harmony on type-C, and then invariably we will have country-to-country inconsistencies in legislation as newer, better, connectors emerge.
It's clear to me that regulation is focusing on the wrong aspects of phone design. Instead of mandating for year on year support, long term security software updates, clean manufacturing standards, appropriate materials & labour sourcing, plus a minimum performance benchmark to prevent cheap junk phones entering the market (and thus fast-tracked to landfill) we have the introduction of laws asking what cable an Apple user pulls out of their satchel when wireless charging isn't available. The idea seems to be that now a person would have one cable instead of two(?)
Here's a common example: When I signed up for my internet package, it included a free tablet computer - there was no way to opt out of receiving it, it came pre-installed with software that had known security vulnerabilities, it used microUSB, and its performance was too poor to hold any modern function. Even the person I gave it to had let me know that it was put into electronics recycling after less than a year. This product's manufacture, materials, and shipping created significantly more waste than any amount of lightning cables that a person could feasibly use in an entire lifetime.
It's utter insanity that legislators haven't attempted to address the real sources of environmental damage, human rights abuses, and the very real security issue that these junk devices present. Fixation on the connector has been nothing more than political hand waving. I'm not against type-C, I prefer it, but it's clear to me that people who think this is a real issue are blindsighted.