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Which brand and model of cable is that so I can go buy myself a couple dozen? I’ve got a whole bin of seemingly identical cables here and usually have to try several before I can get devices to connect properly.
A lot of the cables that get included with devices only supports the subset of features that device needs - sometimes down to just power delivery only.
Cables are much more complicated now with embedded chips and so on so you need to select and use them as if they were any other electronic you would spend time reviewing the specs or comparisons on.
But then I have this one Seagate external SSD that simply won’t mount with it, for which I have to use a TB4 cable (even though it’s not rated for TB).
Also, some cheap Chinese devices only work with their supplied USB-A to C cable.
Other than those edge cases, those Apple cables are great.
It goes to show there is no one cable to rule them all, even though they look identical.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AD5aAd8Oy84
For those who prefer to read and want to look at the scans in more detail, that can be found here:
https://www.lumafield.com/article/usb-c-cable-charger-head-t...
This cable also has no thunderbolt chip and is only usb 2.0
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MU2G3AM/A/240w-usb-c-char...
And the reason it's not USB-C is because it needs to have a locking mechanism and be ultra-robust at the ends.
I've never seen a USB-C cable with either.
I think the bigger reason behind locking the cable to the battery pack, is the same reason the cable locks to the headset. They don’t want it to come unplugged while you’re using it. If the pack falls out of your pocket, it would probably better for it to catch itself and hang, than come unplugged.
The notion that the EU forced Apple's hand with the iPhones a year after that (and not that Apple continued a transition that was already in progress) is some people's favorite conspiracy theory.
I suspect the iPhone was last because it is the most popular device. They don’t want to do anything risky, and it would be good if people already had a bunch of USB-C around the house before the iPhone switch to make it less impactful. People were very upset when Apple moved away from the 30-pin connector, because all their accessories became obsolete overnight. They promised Lighting was designed to last for the next decade, which is about how long it lasted.