I have one laptop whose usb-c port has loosened up to the point where I have to wedge something under the cable on the table to create upward pressure in the port or it won’t charge reliably.

I’ve been way more impressed with the durability of lightning ports. They get dirty and need to be cleaned out but their mechanical strength is amazing (apple’s cables on the other hand…). I like that Apple is confident enough in the strength of the lightning port that in the Apple stores, the standard display is to have the phone being physically supported by the port alone, even in an environment where hundreds of careless people are going to be messing with it.

Another advantage is that USB-C has all the springs on the cable, while USB-A has springs on the port. When the springs get loose, with USB-C you can just replace the cable, while with USB-A, you'd have to replace the port.

So far I've found the overall durability to be lower.

Usb a has nice big leads, that don't readily corrode away. Usb c on the other hand, my phone barely connects to power anymore

If it's pin damage I'd be kind of surprised. USB C has smaller pins but for power there are four each of positive and ground, instead of just one.