In contrast, I prefer the current world. Usually, when I unexpectedly need some cable for some device (and i.e. have to borrow it) it's for charging. And so far

In contrast, I prefer the current world. Usually, when I unexpectedly need some cable for some device (and i.e. have to borrow it) it's for charging. And so far every time the cable + charger worked for what I needed to charge. Data- and protocol-related stuff is more complex indeed, but those I can usually research and check the specs of before ordering, so it's really a non-issue. As this article describes, you can also just look for everything Thunderbolt 4 compatible, as it's a standard on top of the USB 4 standard that's just an aggregated specification of "this stuff works" for most of the important extensions.