Wrong! Tons of "regular users" want to transfer their image library from their phone to their PC. This is usually dozens of GB of data. Very often the tranfer (from iphone to cheap windows laptop via oxidized cable) is not even completly successful.

My usual recomendation for these people is to buy icloud storage ($$$$) and sync the images over the web, because this is faster an less error prone.

EDIT: therefore the average amount of times anyone who buys a non pro iPhone plugs it into a computer with the intent to transfer data to it is almost 0

Samsung has offered USB 3.0 support as far back as the Note 3 about 10 years ago. I enjoy the speeds on my own S23 when shooting 4k video and want to edit the dozens of GB it often generates. And the 'extra parts' don't seem to have slowed Samsung down from record-breaking profits.

Let's be honest: useful USB ports aren't going to sell iCloud storage subscriptions.

Didn't they put it in the SoC for the 15 Pro/16 Pro? It's an $800 phone and it's a feature that much cheaper competitors have (e.g. Pixel 8a) . For the times you need it it's handy. I know quite a few people that have been frustrated trying to get GBs of photos off their iPhone too where it runs it problems due to the sheer volume.

They support other niche features like display out so why not support for almost 15 year old USB speeds. How much does it seriously cost to add?

My parents do that all the time. The videos of their grandchildren take AGES to transfer.

Meanwhile, my phone that is half the price does almost 8 gigabits.

How will we ever get good peripherals and good use-cases if everything can only ever be USB 2.0?

That's a flawed argument, like saying people rarely use their car's hazard lights or emergency jack.

I routinely transfer GB of photos taken for work to my PC via imazing.

The sentiment of “I don’t need it so I can’t understand why anyone else would either” is asinine.