90% of the "unique cables" weren't unique. Is that HDMI cable 1.1 or 1.2 spec? What, you can't tell? Is that USB cable 3.0 compatible, or just 2.0? What about the port, is it 3.0 or 2.0?
The "this cable looks the same but doesn't work" has been an issue since the beginning of computers. As for "fried devices" - those are, in every case I've seen, an issue that had nothing to do with USB-C and everything to do with cheap Chinese knock-offs.
Stories of cables not meeting spec, fried devices, daisy chain widgets that don't, the new TB3 chip not being compatible with the older TB chip, etc.