[sascha_sl]

Yes, I've had every lightning cable, apple or not, show darkened and eventually dying 4th pins. It's infuriating. You essentially have to unplug the USB-A side first to prevent it from happening.

Strange enough I've not seen this happen to a lot of other people.

[chipotle_coyote]

Strange enough I've not seen this happen to a lot of other people.

Yeah, I've never had that happen, and I've been using Lightning cables since they were a thing. I've rarely had any problems with Lightning cables, though. (The same couldn't be said for their predecessor 30-pin cable.)

I'm trying to think if there could be anything weird about your environment doing that, but I'm drawing a blank. "You're holding it wrong" seems even less applicable here than it would to antennas. :)

[velosol]

Living closer to the coast (high humidity and salt content), living in the drier regions of the country (low humidity) could be part of the puzzle.

[gervase]

This happens to me constantly. I was going through 3-5 cables per year before I switched to inductive charging.