My understanding was some what different and also came from comments made here: apple made both connectors and offered the worse one (type-c) to the USB Forum.

My understanding was some what different and also came from comments made here: apple made both connectors and offered the worse one (type-c) to the USB Forum. Because it was reversible, smaller than usb-A and overall a better design vs usb-A they took it, but lightning is the superior connection.