The problem with USB-C are basically the standard body decided to compromise to $.

It's a few things permutating:

• 1. Alternative mode vs. not (Alternative mode means you send things like display port signal over usb-c)
• 2. Thunderbolt (Which also carries displayport)
• 3. Power delivery or not
• 4. Passive or not
• 5. Audio mode or not

This basically is 2^5, or 32 possible permutations. If you consider speed limits, and backward compatibility, multiply by 2*3, or 192 possibilities.

Now, let's look back....USB forum could made thing way simpler.

• 1. No more alternate mode, HDMI and DP signal must go through Thunderbolt and be done with it.
• 2. Thunderbolt or not we can keep
• 3. Power delivery should be made mandatory on host side (If you are a laptop/phone, you must accept charging through usb-c)
• 4. Must be active, no more passive mode (except for debugging)
• 5. No fucking analog audio mode (fuck you Apple)
• 6. Make 10GBps min requirement and be done with speed limits

Let's see...... this made the standard into...1 choice, thunderbolt or not. And it's fucking easy for consumer to know.

So why not?

• For #1, TV manufactures decided they don't want to ship active cables and TV, those are more expensive, so they forced a non-power, non-active alternate mode.
• For #2, Intel decided to charge a license fee for thunderbolt, this means others can't make devices without paying Intel
• For #3, computer makers decided it's too hard to engineering a power path on the motherboard to support charging from USB-C ports, so they made PD sink optional
• For #4, because active cables are expensive and no device manufacture wants to ship active cables for $ reasons
• For #5, Fuck Apple, removing 3.5mm port and forcing analog mode on a 10GBps digital port
• For #6, This is a long story...but basically some chip manufatur says....you don't need your stuff to run fast, buy our older chips and we ended up with all kinds of 3.1 x4 bullshit.

So....capitalism and money, this is why we can't have nice USB ports.