To elaborate: Why must a USB cable look different from an HDMI cable? Why must we have B-type and C-type chargers? Why use circular audio jacks when it can be “USB’ed” instead? and so on
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The #1 reason is that electronics are sensitive. If you plug something with amperage into something not designed to take that kind of current, you are going to have a _very_ bad time. Different plugs prevent this from happening.
Beyond that, different plugs help differentiate what information can travel. A headphone jack outputs analog audio, while an HDMI jack outputs digital video _and_ audio. Your headphones can’t do anything with HDMI signal, so people will get confused when they plug in their headphones to the wrong jack and nothing happens.
There _are_ universal standards, like USB-C, that are attempting to create a universal cable that can do everything, but that tech is more expensive than a “dumb” cable and jack that only does one thing. A Thunderbolt-4 USB-C cable could run you hundreds of dollars, while a cheap analog audio cable will be under $5 – why spend so much more when you don’t have to.
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