USB-C is that standard interface - when working at my desk I can plug a single USB-C cable into my laptop and it gains two monitors, external audio, keyboard, mouse, webcam, and all the other things you'd expect.
The controller/driver side of USB-3 is still in a miserable state. USB-3 is the source of endless frustration both at the lab and at private computers. Issues range from:
USB-3 controllers won't initialize reliably if there's a single low speed device conntected, like e.g. the keyboard/mouse I've connected to the USB-3 hub my my monitor, which I'd like to connected to a USB-3 port of my computer so that I can plug thumb drives into the side ports of the monitor.
If the do initialize they take ages to go through POST.
After waking from S3 it takes several minutes(!) for all devices to come up properly. Often the OS drops the controller into USB-2 mode, because keeping it USB-3 creates interrupt storms or similar.
Just having enabled the on-board USB-3 support without anything connected may cause random POST hangs.
All of this happening on pretty recent hardware (late 2015, but still available for purchase in that configuration as of today) with latest BIOS and drivers.
And that's without the issues USB-C introduces (alternate modes, power delivery, which requires driver support, etc.).
I noticed an interesting case when running Windows 7 with KVM and passing through one of my USB-3 controllers. The controller has a single port and a 3.0 hub connects to it. When I connect a USB-2 hub to the 3.0 hub, DPC latency spikes through the roof because of the interrupts. Even if there is nothing plugged into the second hub.
I wasn't sure if this was an issue with KVM, USB-3 or just a general issue with nesting hubs (even though I'm running low speed/power devices and a 3.1 port should be able to handle it) but you make it sound like it might indeed be an issue with USB-3
I don't see how you can say that, unless you've not actually used Windows ME and/or 10 for any significant period of time.
Windows 10 is very well polished. It's also the first windows where most of the user's gripes are stuff added on top of it (telemetry, simplified/restricted update system, ...).
Windows ME, by comparison, was so bad that merely leaving it running would end up causing PC Health crashes.
Well, aside from Windows Defender steadfastly turning itself off because it thinks I have a different AV package installed (I don't) and "helpfully" redirecting me to uninstall the offending software first. Only there is no other AV package to uninstall.
I have so far been absolutely unable to find any sort of resolution to this issue, short of a full reinstall.
But the kernel and system side are miles above ME. We're talking about a time when you could turn a system on, sit there and watch it for a couple hours without touching anything, and it would crash itself.
In the mean time you can buy a phone with MHL output, use BT for keyboard/mouse, and wifi for data. Root the device and dual boot Linux. By the time the phone is obsolete, USB-C will be stable.
As for Apple products, it's available on the desktop (using Intel CPU's/chipsets) but not compatible with their iOS devices. So it's far from "universal" given that iOS devices are an overwhelming majority of their sales.
My intuition is that USB-C standards will eventually replace most Thunderbolt interfaces (e.g. for eGPUs etc.)
You guys are talking about the same thing (and on the other side, not, but you don't realize how): Thunderbolt 3 uses USB-C, because USB-C is the connector spec.
If I understood it correctly, Thunderbolt at the same time can "carry" USB. So basically if you have Thunderbolt 3, you also (potentially) have USB.
A non-Thunderbolt USB 3.1+ USB-C can via Alternate Mode (depending on devices and cable) carry e.g. a DisplayPort A/V Signal over dedicated lanes (but has not nearly the same Bandwidth as Thunderbolt, so restrictions apply).
So: "Every Thunderbolt 3 is USB-C, but not every USB-C is Thunderbolt 3".
Yes, it can get confusing, but essentially you both are arguing about A is better than A, because Thunderbolt 3 uses USB-C. The "fullest" features set though you only get with Thunderbolt, for now at least.