Apple may have changed something but with my Pro, you needed to buy a USB-C to Lightning cable as well as a higher Wattage charger plug in order to quick charge. The iPads still come with a 5W charger, or something, right?
But USB-C is the future, isn't it? Between my MBP, my XM3s, and hypothetical 2018 iPad Pro and future phone, it would all mean just one charger to use on the go. Wasn't that one of the big selling points of USB-C, in addition to transfer speeds? Unified charging?
They are bundled with a 15W charger, which I think is adequate, but not quick-charging. You need a higher wattage charger to quick charge, but you can do it over the Lightning cable. Considering that iPads last long years, they don't need to be charged frequently and the battery isn't replaceable, I would personally rather not shorten its lifespan by quick charging anyway.
USB-C being the future is relative and increasingly uncertain. I just built a PC last year with a brand new, flagship motherboard that has 8 USB-A ports and not a single USB-C port. It will probably last 8-10 years. The newest Surface devices and many modern laptops still are made exclusively with USB-A ports and not a single USB-C port. Not to even mention more mainstream and less premium products. An overwhelming majority of peripherals are still made with micro USB ports. Surely the most common device that people connect to their Type-C ports is the converter to USB-A, which is a major hurdle for the end users.
USB-C has been with us for 5 years now and after all that time it sees very little use outside of premium mobile device charging. My home and my office have 0 USB-C ports apart from some personal smartphones, and I'm yet to buy anything I could connect to my computer using a Type-C cable.
There are also severe issues with the implementation of the new USB standards that make them inferior or at times unsafe. Case in point, I had a power bank that was being charged by my phone whenever I connected it to my S8, not the other way around - something that could never happen with USB-A->MicroUSB. Then there are the cost issues. All in all, this leads to the current situation where a Dollar store Type-A-Micro cable costs $2 and is perfectly good (can't cause any harm and can even quick charge), while almost any sub $10 Type-C cable is literally a potential fire hazard. Additionally, for many stationary devices, the Type-C connector is too fragile, while the type-A connector is significantly more sturdy and can easily sustain hanging cables or heavier peripherals (which is one of the reasons you also won't see Type-C connectors in server motherboards). Also, each pin on any USB-C cable is much thinner and more fragile not only than the pins on the USB-A cable but also on the MicroUSB cables (which have fewer significantly thicker pins which are still harder to bend or otherwise damage). Not to even mention that MicroUSB ports and connectors are also smaller and thinner, allowing them to be installed in smaller devices.
I suspect USB-A will be with us for a very long time. Even granted the Type-C connector is here to stay and serve all future USB iterations, and that the future USB versions (like 4.0) support only Type-C, I expect that even in 10 years the majority of USB ports out there in the wild will still not be Type-C. The recent USB standards are a mess, the implementations are horrible and frankly, 99% of use cases don't call for the extra speed, considering the significant extra cost. Making this an omnidirectional standard also provides little benefit in most use cases, yet causes confusion and potential for device malfunction.
The fact that USB 3.0+ is not a standard anymore and more like a list of suggestions means that in reality there are gazillions of different ports, cables and power delivery standards that can work with the other device over Type-C, but don't have to (up to the manufacturer's implementation). you need to check which standards each device and port supports - some can only charge, some can only be charged, some can do both (sometimes in wrong directions), some can do thunderbolt, some charge with power delivery, some with quick charge, some with other proprietary quick charging standards. Some ports/devices using Type-C are still USB 2.0, some are 3.0, some are 3.1 v1, some are 3.1 v2, some are 3.2, and then you realize that 3.0 and 3.1 v1 are the exact same thing, and 3.1v2 and 3.2 v1 are the exact same thing, except their names are different and sometimes they don't play well with each other, dropping to 3.0 speeds or slower. Then you need a proper cable, because despite having the same connectors, each USB-C cable is internally different and capable of supporting different protocols and power. It's incredibly confusing. There ARE universal cables that support power delivery to its full potential, USB 3.1v2 and Thunderbolt at the same time, but they are very expensive to make, nobody would pay for them, and therefore hardly anyone even makes them, meaning in most cases you need to know what standards your cable supports and whether it's even safe to use with your devices.
I think the original idea behind USB 3.1 and the Type-C connector was great, but the implementation is horrible. Personally, the only thing I like about the Type-C connectors is that they are reversible, but Apple already did that right with the Lightning cable, which also comes with much smaller connectors and ports.
