Once USB became the standard their was no real reason to hold onto lightning other than it being proprietary and them wanting to hand hold their users

Other than the fact that they promised when they switched to lightning they wouldn’t change connectors again for a decade.

Because when they switched from the 30 pin connector to lightning, everybody bitched and moaned about it. So they promised they’d keep lightning for a decade. It’s been 11 years.

But I’m sure if they’d broken their promise and switched earlier, everyone would have been understanding.