Still not an EE, but as I understand it, if you are creating your own controllers and you also control how the cable is shielded, pin count doesn't matter much

Still not an EE, but as I understand it, if you are creating your own controllers and you also control how the cable is shielded, pin count doesn't matter much except for power. Traditionally it's been easier for most hardware makers to double the pin counts than to build controllers that run at twice the clock rate and also make everybody use fancy cables. But traditionally not everybody has PA Semi across the hall to build chips for you and years of experience selling $50 cables to consumers via direct retail. So I'm betting that the usual economics of the consumer data interface market don't apply to Apple.