The EU commission did not decide on USB-C in a vacuum. It looked on already existing standards and talked to many large electronics manufacturers in order to come to a proposal for USB-C as a universal standard. You are right to point out the role that both Intel and Apple played (Along HP, Microsoft and the USB-IF) in the development of the standard, but you're missing the forest for the trees, since it was the EU making it a *universal * standard within it's borders that means we all use the same standard.

Which ‘port designed by Apple’? Apple's Lightning is quite obviously more sturdy than usb-c, being just a puck with contacts, put into a hole with contacts and without flimsy plastic tongues. However, Lightning is more costly to produce, while afaik USB was always made from cheap sheet metal.

Though you might mean Thunderbolt, since afaik usb-c is made to be able to carry Thunderbolt. Not sure if that involved more than electrical concerns, however.