For power user, probably not a problem. I have a bunch of charger and even USB C-to-A cable I got from various devices that I never use, since I have my own set of chargers and cables I prefer.
But most users don't. They use the included charger. They need the included charger. I frequently see people asking if it's okay to use other adapters and cable with their devices. They don't know and whether it's compatible and they don't want to risk their device.
Ok so then the issue becomes: has Apple properly informed buyers they will receive a device without a charger, and they need to purchased one in the same basket if they want to have both at the same time delivered?
If not then the fine is justified. Otherwise I'm on Apple's side on this one.
And when all devices will have USBc cables and chargers I will be on the side of not bundling a charger with the product at all. It will just create waste.
Maybe its in some fine print or on official product pages. But for at least 95% of the users it was still a nasty surprise when they couldn't find charger (this is true across spectrum, ie Samsung is currently doing the same). Those folks are simply not following all the news and releases. The expectation and reality for 2 decades was that all necessary to charge is in the phone package.
So they effectively hiked the prices of their phones by quality charger. The thing is, outside of US most people don't change phones every 1/2 years. Heck, most of my 90 colleagues who are IT geeks have 5+year old android/apple phones, mostly androids. So folks generally don't have good fast chargers for modern phones, or USB-C output on chargers at all.
I've grown fed up with this and bought a Anker 65W one, I can plug 3 devices at the same time, both classic USB and USBC, its tiny, doesn't heat up even under 65W. Manufacturers, including Apple and most Androids failed in this (although I grok the marketing aspect and overall possibly net income gain for them).
Right now when you buy a car you expect it to have wheels. This may change in the future when Apple starts selling cars and you'd need to check if it includes wheels or not. But it's not hard to imagine that people will continue to expect wheels in a new car for some time.
USB c isn't some universal charging standard. It's just a cable. Different chargers and protocols won't charge certain devices. USB power delivery helps with that but still isn't foolproof.
My car charger with USB pd can charge my Pixel phone for example but not my partner's Samsung. My bike light uses USB c but not power delivery and nothing except its own charger can seem to charge it. My headlight uses USB c and can be charged by everything I've tried.
It all depends on the implementation. USB c is a horrible anti standard in that regard... The cable fit doesn't tell you whether it's compatible at all.
What would "iPhone specific at both ends" even mean?
The original iPhone charged from a cable with USB-A on the business end.
This was actually a big deal! Most phones were sold with a custom charger, sometimes a really weird one with thin wires, and God help you when it breaks: even the next version of that same phone probably doesn't use the same connector.
No iPhone has ever been sold with the not-iPhone end being anything other than standard USB, ever.
C to iPhone. Problem is, at least in my house (family of 4 with multiple iDevices each), they stopped including the brick before most people had C bricks. I have over 10 usb-a bricks just lying around and just 1 c brick from an old Android phone (which got lost by the teenager). The USB A bricks are ewaste now. I don’t agree with these law suits but it was very stupid timing on Apple’s part.
We've been doing iPhones & iPads in our family for a number of years now, so we have lots of USB-A bricks, but we also have a number of USB-A to Lightning cables. They don't charge as fast as the USB-C version, but it's still fine, and we're not throwing away the USB-A bricks just yet. Through attrition they will eventually all be replaced.
It's USB to lightning. When they stopped including the charger in the box they changed the USB end of the bundled cable from USB A to USB C at the same time, which I cynically think was to increase the chance you'd need to buy a new charger anyway.
It is USB-C to lightning (aka iphone). Before that, it was USB-A to lightning. Haven't seen a charging brick with a lightning port (or a double-ended lighnting cable, for that matter) ever in my life. I don't think they even exist tbh.
If the latter then I really don't see why it would be a problem.