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I think we should expect gadgets to not be outright broken in the first place.

That's what I'm trying to say about Apple's charging bricks

There’s nothing broken about the Apple brick.

If you had a device that wanted 12V input on a USB-C port without negotiation (these products exist, and are dangerous because they come with chargers that just output 12V without any negotiation at all…), whose fault is it? The vendor who chooses to ignore the clearly defined spec to save a few cents and risks damaging devices, or the vendor who follows spec and prevents damaging random devices?

Yes, and in case of 5V, the vendor isn't even saving "a few cents", but a tiny fraction of a cent. USB-C devices without pull-downs are only poorly pretending to be USB-C.

I can do one worse.

I have aquarium lights. They require 48VDC at 1A, which makes it quite a bright light; they’re nice, really…

But the connector is USB-A, and worse, marked as being USB. The power supply just provides 48V unconditionally.

They're spec complaint with genuine USB-PD charging capability. Some devices are counterfeit with fake USB logos & USB-C connectors but not compliant with the specs. I blame the counterfeit sellers & manufacturers.

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