As long as you don’t care about data transfers of the very large video and photos that modern phones can create or connecting to a larger screen. If you want to “avoid ewaste” why not “mandate” more than the least common denominator?

If iPhone users were satisfied with the least common denominator, they would be buying cheap Android phones.

The amount of people that transfer videos/photos off of their phone to a computer by any means is absolutely minuscule.

So you think the people shooting 4K video and taking RAW pictures are posting them to Instagram?

The lowest common denominator is the same reason that Bluetooth outside of the Apple ecosystem is such a shit show.

Android has supported its own proprietary video over micro USB for ages before USB C became more ubiquitous. What are the chances that Android manufactures won’t cheap out and not ship with cables that can support video over USB?

people who know what shooting 4k video means or what RAW format is is probably way less than 10% of all users of smartphones.

and I am probably overestimating by order of magnitude.

Most people shoot photos and show them to their friends online. Some of them even share it through sites like Instagram and Facebook or WhatsApp and similar.

And that is where it ends for most normal people.

As long as the cable can charge the phone, it will do for the most buyers.

people who earn on twitch, instagram, etc use dslr or mirrorless cameras, unless the video requires a phone in hand.

I know the "standard setup" shown in media, and advertisements, etc shows a ring light with a cellphone using the front facing camera as the recording device, that's just not technologically feasible.

And for the record, i move 4k and/or 108MP images from my phones via wifi or cellular, using synology diskstation autosync or syncthing, respectively. I've used syncthing to upload unedited 4k30p drone footage with no issues, and when i get home, it will sync to hard disks in addition.