[throwaway773748]

Not really, you're perfectly free to put USB-C ports in and you can use your standardised dongles if you want. Or mix and match.

I can't imagine what other existing form factor would have been suitable and more useful than them just creating their own and open sourcing the design.

[fragmede]

it would have been interesting if they had reused the physical pcmcia form factor for it, just changing the pins for a usb-c port