> Unless you have evidence that they'd have prevented the industry from suggesting/agreeing on a better standard in that timeline, MicroUSB would have made the most sense at the time.
The evidence is the law that they passed for USB-C: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A...
Mandating a plug means that it is effectively never going to change.
1: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A...