I'm honestly not going to argue against their efficacy as transfer mediums, because I didn't have much contact with the Apple ecosystem other than for work.

But that is another mark against them in my book. What use is a good cable when it's only usable with a single type of device? They could have the highest transfer rates ever and still wouldn't serve, like, half of the people who use phones and computers. That's to say nothing of the myriad other peripherals out there (even vapes use USB-C for charging).

That plus the really poor design/build quality of the cable itself are what make them bad cables.