The fundamental mistake Apple made was continuing to ship USB-A cables in the box with products, and expecting USB-C adopters to pay up for USB-C cables. This was good for Apple's short-term margins, but terrible for the transition.
So, I blame Apple for keeping USB-A alive. They introduced the all USB-C Macbook Pros in late 2016. You'd have expected that over the next year they'd have phased out USB-A, so by 2017 or 2018 they'd have not shipped any USB-A cables or adapters in the box.
But nope. Airpods 2 (released in 2019) still ship with a USB-A cable in the box. It's the same with the iPhone 11 (2019), and the Magic accessories for MacBooks until 2021.
> If the only thing you're throwing them away for is compatibility, and not some feature that's actually improving them, even more of a waste.
Interestingly, this is also a good argument for why the EU shouldn't force iPhones to use USB-C. People have tons of lightning cables that would become e-waste overnight, and all the demand for USB-C to USB-C charging cables would be profits of (some) company - Apple, Anker, or random Amazon companies.
I remember hearing someone point out during that period that if you bought an iPhone and a MacBook, brand new, you couldn't plug the phone into the computer out of the box. Which seems like one of those things that would have been unacceptable to Jobs if he were still around.
I have charging cables (with USB-A on the power side) in multiple places around the house, using the 5V/1A adapters that shipped with iPhones over the years. This works fine, though it is slower than the "fast charging" we've grown to expect these days.
The device end of these cables are miniUSB (bicycle lights), microUSB (external battery pack), USB-C (my partner's noise cancelling headphones), and many of them are Lightning (Airpods, Airpods Max, iPhones, iPads, Apple TV Remote).
There's a few exceptions. If the USB-A jack is rotated sideways on the device, then "up" could be left or right. And if it's a cheap off-brand sweat shop connector, then the logo may be on the opposite side. A sign that it could break quickly too.
I'd say 3 more years will be the turning point. You must remember, before USB there was no universal port. So USB-A didn't have to replace it's predecessor.
Furthermore, ditching all of those USB-A accessories and cables that still work fine just feels wasteful. If the only thing you're throwing them away for is compatibility, and not some feature that's actually improving them, even more of a waste. It's just churn to push more tech company profits.