I agree, the USB-A form factor is by far the most widely used peripheral connector in the history of computers. The shift from USB-A to USB-C is without precedent.
Practically every mouse, keyboard, printer, camera, charger, and external drive made in the last 20 years has used USB-A. Practically every car in the last 10 years has USB-A. Every hotel room, every airplane, every DC power converter. There are still millions (billions?) of devices shipped every year with USB-A.
Luckily space exists for devices using USB-A and devices using USB-C, and making cables with A at one end and C at the other is trivial enough that many cables exist like this.
Two compatible cable standard is easy to handle. The hard part comes when you have USB-A, USB-C, Lightning, Micro-USB, and Mini-USB all competing. Trying to keep enough of each type of cable on hand gets to be pricy.
Mini-USB is dead, and micro-USB/USB-A are opposite ends of the cable - they don't get used for the same thing. I'm guessing Lightning must be some weird one-manufacturer proprietary thing, in which case they deserve to be punished for their antisocialness.
So you really don't need that many cables. C-to-C, C-to-mini, and A-to-C will do you.
Practically every mouse, keyboard, printer, camera, charger, and external drive made in the last 20 years has used USB-A. Practically every car in the last 10 years has USB-A. Every hotel room, every airplane, every DC power converter. There are still millions (billions?) of devices shipped every year with USB-A.
We are nowhere near the inflection point.