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Motherboard vendors don't need to deal with PD and DisplayPort. USB-C will work just fine without them - it'll just behave like any regular old USB port.

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Right, but if they do that then people will complain that their USB-C port isn’t working, or about how USB-C is so confusing because you never know what a port does.

They’ve got a choice between doing nothing and having a few people complain, or doing a bunch of work and spending a bunch of money and still having people complain. One of those is a lot easier.

USB-C is like a regular old USB port, with twice the data lanes (or a mux[1]) and a transistor to turn on the power when requested.

In other words, it costs more.

[1] https://richardg867.wordpress.com/2020/02/29/usb-c-done-chea...

Hence why they have so few

On the scale of a motherboard, those things are cheap and provide more value than half the marketing bullet points.

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