Apple makes as much good and reasonable decisions as they make questionable ones.
But why could that be? Simple, they make what interest and benefits THEM first. And if it incidentally benefits the customers, fine. If not, people will go up in arms, but they don’t care because they know that in the end, they’re powerless and will keep buying their products.
They don’t care if customers have to change accessories (the move to Lightning is the proof), they change things, or use new standards as long as it benefits THEM in any way, or is in their interest. All those changes you mentioned benefited THEM, and in some cases, the customers too, but in others, they didn’t and then customers got upset.
And they simply don’t want to change to USB-C on the iPhone because it’s not beneficial for them, it just benefits the customers. And that’s, in my opinion, all that there’s to it. And again, I’m glad that, for a change, they’ll be forced to do something that benefits the customers and not them.
If they were planning to change it anyway, why the resistance though? Customers have been asking for years.
Heck! I’ve been delaying getting a new iPhone (I have an 11 Pro) until they change that damn port! My iPhone and the Apple TV remote (but now there’s even one with USB-C, so I can change it) are the last 2 devices at home with this connector. All other devices have USB-C or are older devices with Micro-USB. I can’t believe they need to be forced to do it.