Earlier quoted context omitted.
They didn't switch normal iPads until 2022. I really don't understand the argument that it was inevitable when they spent more than five years shipping lightning on phones and most iPads and USB-C on laptops. Maybe they would have switched on their own, maybe not. But they were clearly not just moving USB-C through their product line piece by piece, or everything would have had it many years earlier.
Apple started shipping exclusively USB-C cables/chargers with iPhones with the 11 in 2019. There's certainly a case to be made that they should have done that earlier (iPhone X or even back with the iPhone 7). It is perhaps worth noting that the USB-IF and Apple had a "complex" relationship for many years, and to this day Apple still doesn't sell a single 1st party device or cable which is USB certified.
Did they? I thought they only moved to USB-C with the iPhone 15 in 2023. Thats what Wikipedia shows me as well.
Edit: Oh you mean the _charger_ was USB-C with a USB-C to Lightning cable. The actual phone didn't get a USB-C port until iPhone 15.