Absolutely it was better. But it’s hard to believe that Apple, who was a part of the USB-IF, didn’t know USB-C was in the works. My conspiracy theory is they knew an open standard was imminent and launched lightning to keep getting those MFI licensing checks and purposely made that long of a commitment strictly so, when regulators asked why they hadn’t switched to the new standard yet, they could say it was to “help the environment.”

Oh probably. We know that by the time they finally dropped Lightning, MFi certification was earning them like $4b per year.

There was even rumor they were going to limit charging speeds over USB-C unless they were detectably “MFi” USB-C cables. Ostensibly to prevent damage to the phone from bad cables, but obviously an attempt to maintain MFi income. I don’t remember if they went through with it.