It's not just the resistor, far from it --
it's the quality of the cable and a number of other things. The documentation on this is practically endless, so I'm not sure why you've chalked it down to just being the resistor. Plenty of USB ports/mainboards have been shorted by poor quality hubs that either feed voltage back due to shoddy design or try to draw too much power from the ports.
#3
I know what you are worried about. But I analyse this problem by my knowledge. It is reasonable.
All what you said is the bad result, which is easy to know, but not all the fact. Jut let me tell you how I think. Then judge my thought.
The cable is like the bridge, which connects the smartphone to the wall adapter. It carries the power from the wall adapter to the smartphone. Now the best cable has its brain to control the voltage and current to avoid the harm of the inferior wall adapter, such as the apple's lightening cable. But what the most important is the wall adapter, I think.
And then think about the machine. For example, the nexus 5x uses USB TYPE-c port. You can check the details about the nexus 5x. It provides the 15W/3A new USB Type-C charger. It means that it can accept the max 5V/3A power. So is it the fault of the cable, which can give you the 3A current? You also can check the Google shop and it had ever provided the 3A current cable.
See the link:
https://store.google.com/product/usb_type_c_to_usb_standard_a_plug_cable
Then see the real leading role: the wall adapter. In my opinion, using the high quality wall adapter is the most important. It directly affects the life of a machine. So I think the most important point is the wall adapter, not the cable.
You can't say that the rocket can't fly as a bird and think it is useless. It is really ridiculous.
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Besides, the Google engineer is taking up his time to personally verify each cable, so that consumers have a little more confidence that what they buy won't be dangerous for their $1000 machine. That's admirable, at the very least.
I don't believe the google engineer spends his time in testing the cables for the purple of the noble. I think he only desires to be the god of the USB-C cables and gets the pleasure from it. Because if the his theory about the USB-C cable is wrong, it means he is a tyrant. How a normal man can waste his time to do such things?