I guess the real next step is to keep selling thick old devices as the EU SKU and modern innovative stuff to the rest of the world. Apple already has to do that on the software side for their AI features. Given the current GDP/capita trajectory of the EU, that is likely all they will be able to afford anyway. :)
Standardisation can lead to innovation or be an innovation in itself. Think about containers - shipping containers or docker containers - the most exciting innovation in phones is not in the form of the chargers or batteries.
Sure. Standardization led to USB-C which is great. Mandate led to nothing and is bad and unnecessary.
Arguably achieved nothing as Android was already on USB-C and Apple too on everything but iPhone and would have switched anyway soon for speed reasons regardless. Arguably, the switch was too early and a disservice to iPhone users.
apple would _not_ switch for speed reasons, they are interested in you syncing files though their cloud. Similar to google and android, you "can" sync/backup with a cable, but usability is a nightmare.
Speed is not just useful for syncing files to a computer, which is not the primary use case of iPhone USB-C. The computer is no longer the center of your digital world. The iPhone is (and the cloud). Most iPhone users don't even have a Mac. The use case is to connect the iPhone to other accessories like displays, fetch photos from cameras, etc.
That said, I stand by my comment that most iPhone users would have been better off with Lightning. For many of us who carry Macs as well as phones, having a singular charger is beneficial (less so now that you'd wanna use MagSafe with the Mac, again), but still years of Lightning cables make them easy to find in any iPhone household.
They had already switched iPad Pros long before EU mandate was a thing, so I don't think your would've-not-been theory is substantiated by evidence. If I were to speculate, Apple's evolution would be towards killing the port altogether and do everything wirelessly which is an admirable goal (I'm sure will be downvoted to the oblivion in this community for saying this, but that's also the sentiment of the initial MacBook Air release in 2008 which now defines the modern laptop).
For sending files, Apple has perfected wireless AirDrop and that's quite speedy.
Except your analogy does not hold because you can simply choose not to buy the product with the connector you don't like or can no longer afford as a result of socialism.
It appears much harder to opt out of said socialism without leaving the country though, so read that again with this pretext perhaps?
