Hmm...too bad that in my own personal use cases...those newly enabled features and functionality are pointless gimmicks that I'll never use. I haven't seen a single one of these new features or functions that look useful. But I DO have to go purchase a new cable though so I can continue to be able to use CarPlay. So this switch doesn't offer me anything beneficial but it does require a purchase that wouldn't have been necessary if the switch wasn't forced. Oh and all the docks in my house, and the one I have at work...are now useless. Some of which weren't cheap. I don't think switching was the right move (by mandate, specifically. The EU can go pound sand for all I care instead of sticking their noses where they don't belong) and I don't see that changing. The one on my iPad doesn't always work (which is a problem I NEVER had with Lightning) and one of the ones on my Mac doesn't either.
This is what we call missing the forest for the trees.
You think a common charger for all personal electronics is a pointless gimmick? sorry you invested so heavily in a power connector that apple told us would last 10 years. as they said when it was introduced it lasted 10 years. so why are you so surprised? did you think it would last forever? The lightning cable was proprietary and so while it was great for your phone USB-C is going to be a universal power adaptor for any personal electronics device you can think of. the ecosystem of accessories you can potentially use just got bigger. The "gimmicky" features like charging your AirPods or watch from your phone are minor perks. The iPhone and macs now share a common connector.
you're so bummed about having to buy some new cables and lose your old dock that you're missing the bigger picture. honestly the thing most of us learned from the iPod era was don't buy a dock, especially and expensive audio dock. because it will be junk in 3-5 years. The bigger picture is that your old dock was never going to be compatible with apple's new charging port regardless of if it was type-C or hypothetical lightning 2. The EU is looking at a much larger scale, I would not be surprised if laptops stopped coming with chargers now because people will already have them. the same charger you use for your mac can charge your phone, electric shaver, digital camera, headphones, smart watch, bike lights, etc... its all one unified power standard. every electronic device you use is going to have USB-C.
With regards to your iPad not always working... yep, there will be some growing pains. A lot of cheap chargers might use cheap PD controllers that don't follow the spec. I remember when people got electrocuted by using off brand lightning cables/chargers. another thing to remember is that just because the port is standard doesn't mean that every device can provide enough power to use an accessory. for example Ive seen videos of people trying to use USB-C audio interfaces with their iPhone, and the interface doesn't power up. this is likely because during the power negotiation between the phone and interface the phone listed its source capabilities and none of them were compatible with the interfaces sink requirements. you'll have to know the source capabilities of your phone, just like you knew that even if you had a 60 watt charger connected to your lighting to USB-C cable, the iPhone can't charge at 60W.
anyway, this is the 3rd time I've been through a connector change, its really not a big deal. I am not going to miss lightning.