[alxhill]

I think it's reasonable for Apple to assume that if you kept the old charger, you also had the old cable for it which would also work with the new iPhone.

[Cosmin_C]

It is also completely unreasonable to assume your clients all upgraded to the previous model which still had an USB-C charging brick when all the previous chargers had a USB-A port.

[Hamuko]

Then they'd still be shipping e-waste in the form of a cable that you cannot plug into anything.

[ashtonkem]

Cables are pretty low on the e waste front, since it’s mostly pure copper and shielding. The e waste for the charger is worse.

[8ytecoder]

Plus usb-c to lightning cables were essentially for connecting the iPhone to the Mac. I’d bet that’s the reason the cables was retained.