[chendragon]

Slightly OT, but have you managed to actually find an acceptable quality USB power bank (PD/Type C or otherwise) that actually supports this "UPS mode" of operation? Most of the one I have tried cannot simultaneously output and input, or introduce a second of switching delay in between.

[yourapostasy]

Some discussion about pass through charging on the Anker forum boards [1]. Pretty much everyone I know who carries a power bank only remembers to charge it at the same time they want to use it, so pass through charging capitalizes upon this consumer behavior to use the power banks more frequently.

The possible dark pattern I see operating instead is manufacturers are opting to ship power banks charged up to the retail shelves, and likely don't mind if people keep buying more new units because they can't wait for the units they already have to charge up?

I tend to keep all my gear plugged into chargers whenever I'm stationary because I know all of them have charge protection circuits and I have a work profile closer to that of a digital nomad than an office-worker, so I'm an outlier with that common consumer behavior of only charging when one must.

[1] http://community.anker.com/t/any-powerbanks-that-allow-drain...