I know the whole USB-A super-state thing is a meme at this point, but you can easily plug in cables first try with these two points:
- USB cables tend to have a logo on the upwards facing part.
- If you know/can visualise how the PCB is mounted, you can identify which was is up on the port.
That being said, USB-C is definitely more convenient overall - but I do wish the cables were male and ports female (think Lightning), so that the most fragile part of the connector was on the cable and not the device. Because when that breaks, it’s easier to get a new cable than re-solder a port.
Hilariously, if the corporations could have curtailed their greed for a few more years - piracy could have sufficiently reduced in popularity and need to the point that it would have largely become a ‘lost art’.
Alas, chasing ever higher returns because “line must go up” is just introducing a new generation to these old tried and true methods.