That, and allowing OEMs to decide port, data rates, and power delivery spec individually.
In particular as we have a rudimentary power spec in the 3.1 "data" spec, involving resistors in the cables(?!), and a separate power delivery spec that goes above and beyond the 3.1 power stuff to define anything up to 20V at multiple As.
Frankly to me there seems to have been a initial C port design that was a "simple" mechanical reversible implementation of the existing 3.0 wiring. And then someone decided that rather than simply have the pins being mechanically doubled (either in plug or in port) they could make each be an individual wire and run even more stuff through the port. And thus we get Alternate Mode that can carry just about anything the OEMs dream up...
In particular as we have a rudimentary power spec in the 3.1 "data" spec, involving resistors in the cables(?!), and a separate power delivery spec that goes above and beyond the 3.1 power stuff to define anything up to 20V at multiple As.
Frankly to me there seems to have been a initial C port design that was a "simple" mechanical reversible implementation of the existing 3.0 wiring. And then someone decided that rather than simply have the pins being mechanically doubled (either in plug or in port) they could make each be an individual wire and run even more stuff through the port. And thus we get Alternate Mode that can carry just about anything the OEMs dream up...