[wallacoloo]

If USB-C retains backward compatibility with the existing USB PD implementations, you’ll be able to signal that you want power by permanently affixing a shunt resistor across your two power lines. If you need more control, then you upgrade that to something like a voltage-controlled resistor so that you can do more complex signaling. But USB PD was always designed to support dumb AND CHEAP devices, so if you didn’t need the extra functionality you didn’t need to implement any complexity.