I would not have done so, but I think there’s a reasonable argument that if Apple and Google’s mobile platforms are indistinguishable in terms of user freedom and Google is going to try to be Apple, ya may as well just go with the better Apple

I’d argue that they’re partially right (or at least not entirely wrong) to blame the specification. If the specification makes it easy for crappy manufactures to be crappy, then the specification probably should have planned for that in a better way. And crappy manufactures being crappy is a tale as old as manufacture. Yeah I know there are cable marking requirements, but clearly nobody gives a flying fuck. The USB IF has basically all of the power in this situation, and their members collectively control a significant percentage of the planets wealth, so it’s actually their problem to solve.