Either a port that's compatible with USB-C charging but has otherwise different pins or electrical characteristics (just like how a USB-A port has 4 pins in USB 2 but 8 pins in USB 3, but is still compatible). Or you just add a second port.

Ugly to have 2 ports.

Before we standardized on micro USB, lots of phones had ports easily three times the width of USB-C. We were ok with that back then, so why would two USB-C sized ports next to each other be so bad? In return, all your gizmos and chargers continue to work in the transition period.

Or, just make the new port a barrel connector like a headphone jack, just with more segments. Bonus points if you can plug in an actual headphone and it works. Nobody seemed to have a problem with a headphone jack next to their USB port.

Why do I want a headphone jack on my phone?

I don’t. It’s all Bluetooth now. I like wireless headphones.

But you should be free to buy them and we can both vote with equally with our wallets.

Go buy phones that have the 3.5mm jacks and send the signal that consumers still want plugs invented in the 1950s. If that’s what you want to signal. You have a great way to tell Apple if you like what they are doing! So do I.

Maybe Europeans like wired headphones over wireless? That’s news to me, but they should vote with their wallets. If you like what a company does, but things that company makes. If you don’t, don’t.

It bugs me to see a government meddle with what customers want to buy.

Don’t rig the system so you get a bigger voice than others. That’s not fair.

it bugs me to see rabid "free market", after all europe is birthplace of socialism

Ugly to have 5 cameras on the back :-)