But they for sure had regular USB cables around, which still would have been better than Lightning.
Which ends are on this regular USB cable? micro USB? mini USB? USB-B?
I honestly have far more lightning cables lying around than I do mini USB or micro USB. I don't own many devices that use either micro or mini USB. Lightning also made sense because it was a solid connection, that did not wear out quickly, insertion and removal had no chance of damaging anything whereas I have had several mini and micro USB boards that I've created myself where I've had to replace the connectors over time.
Small, very little chance to break or short a pin, and the fact that it had rounded corners meant it was always easy to get it into the slot.
The various USB connectors always give me grief at the time of plugging in. Some are worse than others (micro and mini are by far the worst of the bunch), some are ok though not great (C is ok IMO).
By now I feel like Apple realized that making USB-C iPhone-ready was easier than making the iPhone connector a serious alternative.
The proliferation of USB connectors was especially pathetic after the SCSI-connector fiasco. Some people and/or organizations just don't learn.