Also less likely to break on the plug side because it's a solid block rather than an extruded shape. Apple is infamous for its flimsy cables, but they always broke at the start of the cable (right after the end of the solid plastic thing), they never broke at the connector level. USB-C breaks on the connector, the plug, and the start of the cable.

I'm not entirely sure why it happened… Maybe Apple thought that they could keep their own proprietary plug forever and that the EU was bluffing about forcing everyone to use USB-C? Or maybe they are happy like everyone to switch to a fragile connector type that will shorten the lifespan of iPhones.