They were shipping USB-C MacBooks since 2016, plus the iPad Pro at some point. All those years they didn't bring it to iPhone, so I don't see any indication that they were going to do it, unless someone at Apple knows.

Also tbh I would have preferred micro-usb over Lightning. Non-reversible, but it at least would've charged my phone reliably.

The EU literally get involved before USB-C.

They pressured the manufactures to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to adopt a common industry standard under threat of legislating if they didn't. The industry responded by everyone agreeing to replace proprietary charge ports with microUSB, and since it was an industry agreement they could gracefully move to USB-C when it came out.

Apple refused to play along and stuck with their proprietary port. The EU responded by going through with their threat of legislation.