Considering the ways Apple *is* playing ball with the (larger) Chinese market (and still to a large degree the place of manufacture for many Apple devices), it is funny how they try to play power games with the EU, instead of finding solutions that benefit the customers. The legislation of the European Union, as all legislative processes is not perfect, just look at law-making in the US and how party lines, commercial interests via PACs and, well, legal forms of bribe, state interests and more and more even religious beliefs form the everyday laws of US citizens. It feels strange to see the EU, which is a rather fragile economic and political come-together of sovereign states, acted upon when we may have laws that try to deal with future technology and monopolistic market trends and that MAY take some functionality from devices that do not comply, when on the other hand in the US the Supreme Court took away Roe vs. Wade and brought back bump stocks. No law-making process is perfect. In the EU is a case of politicians from various countries with wildly varying interests, different languages, coming together to figure out a compromise. Many of these are weak, some are downright stupid, some want the right thing but play out very different in real life. The general line is that the EU at least still tries to put consumers’ interest over a completely free market. There is less Milton Friedman in the EU (and the US under Biden are starting to be a bit more Keynes-ian, too, again, which explains the rather good economical data in the states), there are laws governing banking, agriculture, traffic, customs and so on. As with all things in life, some of these aren't perfect. But I think post-Brexit one can see that as a whole these laws make life better. Buying stuff in the UK has become a nightmare since they left the EU, as regulations and the freedom of the Schengen accords has gone.
That said, USB-C is a good thing. And when a new, better, standard comes, I think it will be possible for companies to speak to the lawmakers and update the standards, nothing says USB-C has been written in stone till the end of mankind, rules evolve with the market, as they have to. Side-Loading on iOS (and especially iPad) will be a good thing. I LOVE the AppStore, no hassle, subscriptions cancelled easily, transparent reminders, a bit of a safety net, installing without codes and activations and all that BS on many devices, linked to one central account. That and the curated market-place is very very often worth the 30% (it should be 15%, but that's another debate). But on MacOS we have side-loading since, well, ever – and it is an important part of why that OS is so much better and more practical. There is software for almost every problem, there is much more ingenuity in terms of small apps and hacks that make the OS much better and more use-able. And I use lots of them, not feeling my security has been THAT compromised because I use Forklift or ABetterFinderAttributes ;-).
The thing is: It is good to have a legislative body trying to reign in companies that tend toward monopolistic power plays. This is the very thing politics HAS to do, to represent the interest of the people they govern to the parallel reality of economy. It's a messy process, as is ALL of democracy, as is all of human communication, frankly, but this kind of dialogue or discourse with the industries and markets is super important and if both sides do not lock in anger and scorn and try to be pushy but look for common benefit and win-win-scenarios, it DOES work. And work well. Law-making in the EU is problematic, and I personally wish that Brussels had more freedom vs the individual states (as in the US it makes sense to wonder if the Senate in its current form really represents the people), as laws that pass down from Brussels to the communal areas of cities and towns go through many changes and processes and, well, bureaucracy on so many levels turns many good ideas into abominations, of course. But still, all things considered, I really would rather live in and be able to shape this process instead of living in countries where such complex and difficult and frustrating democratic processes have been voided.
And we all know, by 2025 there will be AI on devices in the EU. This more or less is just Apple blaming internal development problems, copyright issues, different law structures and language barriers etc on regulators. But as AI is not Apple News, is not a discrete part of the OS, not more or less a standalone app, but woven into every application, both sides will have to find a way in order to really not end up with a fractured OS.