I still dispise USB-C, basically the most fragile connector I’ve ever used
It's not as bad as micro-USB which sometimes would bend, but yeah it's second worst ( I don't recall Apple ever using micro USB tho so it could be Apple's worst connector).
I also dislike the insistence on using a USB-C connector for EVERYTHING: "let's use the same pinout for video, data, and charging, but make different cables for different uses." Kinda defeats the whole purpose of a "Universal" Serial Bus.
I like having a video cable that is obviously a video cable--makes it easy to figure out what you are plugging in when you are at the back of your computer. A Displayport cable obviously connects to your monitor. A fifth USB-C cable is just confusing. And what is the point in having a USB-C port that requires a special USB-C video cable that transfers the signal to the Displayport format to your monitor, when you could just use the standard DP cables like everyone does in the Windows world? DP is the video standard. DP over USB-C connector using a special USB-C video cable is not more simple.
Anyway, Apple's implementation of USB-C might as well be a totally proprietary port like its old 30 pin one, because the only charging cable that works with my ipad pro is the one provided by Apple. So I can only use my only Apple USB-C product with its provided proprietary Apple charger--might as well be a totally new format then (which would be fine by me).
Lightning was the best of all the connectors. People complained about its transfer speed (the USB-C transfer speeds are also gimped so that's a silly complaint), but who uses wired transfer these days anyway? With airdrop and wifi I haven't done it in years.
Overall though, it's not a huge deal. USB-C is not *significantly* worse than lightning.
It's annoying to see the USB-A ports going away completely though. I use a Windows desktop and have at least 6 USB-A products plugged in to it at any time. I'm not going to re-buy all 6 accessories to have a slightly smaller connector on them. Sillyness. But then again, they want you to pay the Apple tax and buy Apple accessories instead of third party OEM keyboards and such. I get it. But that's also why people Hackintosh.
The lightning connector I’ve used since it’s inception and basically have had zero issues with it on any device ever. Yes the cables wore out, yes sometimes I had to clean out the plug
Never even cleaned mine and am using the original plug from my iPhone 6. Still use the IPhone 6 as a podcasting device (lasts a week on a single charge with the battery case if you turn off wifi!). Also has a HEADPHONE jack! Always thought it was hilarious that people would cheer the removal of ports.. that cracks me up to this day. I never once used a Firewire port but I was glad it was there.