I thought about and perhaps should have mentioned USB-C.
Overall, yeah, where USB-C can be applied, I like it, and it definitely helps turn the charger into a bit more of a commodity, and for whatever reason, USB-C chargers seem to not suffer the design flaw I mentioned above as much: the cables tend to detach at the converter. The two big issues I have is that a. chargers are terrible at listing the max wattage they can supply (and laptops their draw), so it's hard to impossible to know if a given charger will be able to supply enough power. My work desk had built in power & USB-C charging, for example, and I now comically charge my USB-C work laptop off the desk's AC plug (a MBP¹, so that's thankfully USB-C). USB-C never really charger, and eventually we figured out that the desk (and this was hard to find) was a USB PD of like 15 W. And MBPs need 87 W or so.
And b., my current laptop alleges to have a max draw of 135 W, which is above the max for USB-C. (Which is why I suspect it has a custom adapter… but who knows.)
¹I am glad Apple switched to USB-C, and they allievated the design flaw I mention in their chargers when they did so, for which they should be praised. But there is so much else wrong — completely unservicable design, the butterfly keyboard problems, cable-gate, battery recalls, ergo fails, heat dissipation issues, macOS, crap warranty — with their laptops that it isn't sufficient to tip the scales to me buying.
Overall, yeah, where USB-C can be applied, I like it, and it definitely helps turn the charger into a bit more of a commodity, and for whatever reason, USB-C chargers seem to not suffer the design flaw I mentioned above as much: the cables tend to detach at the converter. The two big issues I have is that a. chargers are terrible at listing the max wattage they can supply (and laptops their draw), so it's hard to impossible to know if a given charger will be able to supply enough power. My work desk had built in power & USB-C charging, for example, and I now comically charge my USB-C work laptop off the desk's AC plug (a MBP¹, so that's thankfully USB-C). USB-C never really charger, and eventually we figured out that the desk (and this was hard to find) was a USB PD of like 15 W. And MBPs need 87 W or so.
And b., my current laptop alleges to have a max draw of 135 W, which is above the max for USB-C. (Which is why I suspect it has a custom adapter… but who knows.)
¹I am glad Apple switched to USB-C, and they allievated the design flaw I mention in their chargers when they did so, for which they should be praised. But there is so much else wrong — completely unservicable design, the butterfly keyboard problems, cable-gate, battery recalls, ergo fails, heat dissipation issues, macOS, crap warranty — with their laptops that it isn't sufficient to tip the scales to me buying.