I don't particularly follow Apple's products, so I don't know when they started selling USB-C devices, and hence what "recently" means to you. What I can say,

I don't particularly follow Apple's products, so I don't know when they started selling USB-C devices, and hence what "recently" means to you. What I can say, is that in France on Amazon, USB-C cables and Lightning cables had similar prices when I last bought mine a few years ago. I usually compare Amazon Basics and Ugreen / Aukey brands.