There are a lot of USB devices that do not attach via a cable. You can't just use a different cable in that case, because you were not using one to begin with.
VGA devices always connected via a cable, so you weren't adding bulk. Even adapters for devices with integrated cables (grrr...) were pretty minor compared to the sheer heft of the VGA cable itself.
So do we just stick with USB-A forever?
Just about everything was USB-C and would accept a USB-A signal over a USB-C cable, so you just bought a USB-C->USB-A cable and continued using USB-A.
I don't see a difference. Except the part where you say the transition was handled well. I didn't feel good applying that to USB-C...