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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What those guys said, plus legacy reasons.The days of analog technology lasted for 70-80 years.Digital signals can have VERY different physical & electrical requirements than analogue signals.And the invention of transistors made power requirements change.And microprocessors became more efficient, changing voltage requirements.And the invention of solid-state power supplies changed requirements again.plus different nations has settled early on on incompatible power deliveries to the home.
And some early designers made really, REALLY dumb mistakes, such as the designer who made the USB 1 connector, who made it fit in just 1 rotational orientation. He didn’t HAVE to do that.
And corporate greed alters some designs for the worse: cell phone companies early on used proprietary wall wart plugs to force you to buy their chargers ONLY. The EU’s rules demanding common charging ports put an end to most of that nonsense.
And then the entrenched interest in maintaining the investment in existing infrastructure once you’ve already bought it generally means old connector formats tend not to die out. Plus electronics tend to last a LONG time. There’s a reason you can still find LP record players in thrift stores.
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