True that's not foolproof but you also have the fat plastic part down if you just glance into your cable before you go to plug. That's foolproof. But you still have to know what is 'down' on the device you are plugging into...

That is also not foolproof.

There is no method or approach that is foolproof for all cables and ports. I have cables with no logo, cables with rounded and heavy cable parts on both sides, cables with holes in the metal jacketing on both sides, and so on.

The only truly foolproof method is to look inside both the plug and the port before attempting to plug it in, to see where the metal is. Of course, that only works when you can clearly see into the port, so it doesn't work in the dark or for ports behind other things.

So yeah, nothing is foolproof when it comes to USB-A. Not 100% of the time.