Blame the SoC manufacturer for not supporting something newer? If you want to support Thunderbolt or DP, you're looking at a lot of extra hardware (if the SoC

Blame the SoC manufacturer for not supporting something newer? If you want to support Thunderbolt or DP, you're looking at a lot of extra hardware (if the SoC even has a way of talking that quickly off-chip) or you need support directly on the SoC. If you don't support Thunderbolt or DP, what other video interface is there but some variant of HDMI? As for the lack of USB-C interfaces on this or the RPi, think for a minute about why you don't see 7-port USB-C hubs and see a maximum of 4 USB-C ports on laptops. USB-C even before PD might have to source 5V at 3A. That's 15W of power for every port--that's almost higher than the power spec for a 7-port USB 2.0 hub! I will, however, concede the point about the really stupid micro-USB 3.0 connector for power. That's just incredibly dumb. This is a Chinese-made board--shrug--presumably LCSC was running a special. I do agree that any system like this should be designed with USB-C PD since peripherals are going to suck down power even if the board itself can work with 5V/900mA.