Yep, lots of things like cars, home appliances, home theatre components, etc. get regular, if not yearly, updates even when some of those things have a 10+ year lifecycle for the average consumer. It’s not like Apple stops supporting devices after a couple years. With things like the Apple TV that aren’t updated as often I end up putting off buying something that I want because, like you said, it might already be 2+ years old and I wouldn’t want to feel behind when the new one comes out less than a year later. I’d rather see smaller updates more often so there’s always something recent when I’m looking to buy.

I might argue that moving to just USB-C for the 2016 era MacBook pros was a little premature. In 2018 I opted for a refurbished 2015 largely because I wanted the variety of ports, and it seems they’ve stepped back a bit on the latest releases. Now though, if they didn’t move to USB-C I’d say they’re waiting too long. The issue with adopting new ports is most customers already have a plethora of devices with the existing standard, so many tend to carry on with that momentum rather than adopt the new thing and it’s growing pains. At some point though we need to rip off the bandaid and standardize on the best option. EU regulations are a big step to making this happen, and Apple is the kind of company that’s able to push the market based on what they support in their devices.

Remember the benefits of USB-C are that you can have one(or a few cables) that scale between 5 W and 240 W charging, USB 2 to Thunderbolt 4 data rates(plus things like audio/video, etc.), and even if you’re limited by the cable or the device at each end, there’s still some backwards compatibility that provides some base functionality rather than being completely worthless because the ports don’t match. You’re better off being able to connect a USB-C product at USB-2 speeds than have a micro-USB Super Speed cable/product that doesn’t connect at all.

Either way, people are going to complain. Some that there’s little innovation and things are too much the same as they were years ago. Others that the new innovation breaks compatibility and they need to replace cables/accessories to stay up to date.

Some systems already have that. Replaced a switch yesterday and re-arranged some things on my network board and got a HomeKit notification that some things were offline and when it came back. Knowing when something goes offline isn’t as useful as keeping things up though. With something like a hardwired camera/NVR, even if your ISP service is interrupted the cameras can still record, and you can put a UPS there to keep things going, even if the rest of the network is down.

That was my thought too. Wonder what the timeframe was because if it’s data collected over multiple years you’d expect to see an overrepresentation of vehicles that were sold through that whole period while models that get discontinued, or launched in that timeframe would be underreported. Also maybe some demographics, like was the high number of S-10 while it was available new and presumably driven by people that recently purchased those new vehicles, or is it 10+ years after it stopped being sold when it’s the old farm shitbox or a young guys first truck.