Which I think is a better outcome than if we’d gotten iPhones stuck on a local maxima of microUSB.

As a consumer, lightning is a more pleasant to use connector than micro and therefore, I’m glad Apple didn’t cave at that time.

But you could've got USB-C almost a decade earlier tho

What was the advantage to me as a consumer if a 2015 iPhone got USB-C? IMO, USB-C wasn’t an advantage over Lightning then. (USB-C was not yet a common connector and most Apple users already had Lightning cables or could get by with the one included with the phone. Apple users had 3 years of orientation-independent convenience before USB-C arrived.)

I still find plugging in the Lightning cable to be easier (less precise alignment needed) than a USB-C and by the time the iPhone 8 arrived with magnetic charging, any charging advantage to USB-C went away.

“Forced into”, as if apple hasn’t been producing literally every other items besides iphones with usb-c, based on their own choices.

Of course if there were a law like that, they will rather point their fingers at the EU, over their users blaming apple for the slight inconvenience of changing.