But your example is trying to prove a negative. "How many innovations are stifled by regulating this connector?" Unknown. Try this: how much e-waste is created

But your example is trying to prove a negative. "How many innovations are stifled by regulating this connector?" Unknown. Try this: how much e-waste is created by not having a standard connector? Also: will you trade your children living knee-deep in a toxic sludgepile so that we can continually keep innovating? Maybe new iterations of connectors making entire devices obsolete every 'less than 20 years' isn't the great outcome you think it is.