Compare it to electrical power socket regulations. Nobody thinks that should be a free-for-all the way it was in the early days of commercialized electricity, s

Compare it to electrical power socket regulations. Nobody thinks that should be a free-for-all the way it was in the early days of commercialized electricity, so why would standard power/data ports be any different? Of course, power sockets differ country to country, but that's only because these things were cemented in place long before it mattered, and now it would be extremely difficult to change. But most countries have settled on a single plug/socket design, and that is due to government regulation.