The cheaper aliexpress item you actually want is this one, it will read the emarker and tell you the power/data rates it supports, if it supports thunderbolt etc https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007287415216.html

Some photos of it in action https://bitbang.social/@kalleboo/109391700632886806

The really janky ones you get with like USB gadgets like fans only have the 2 power lines hooked up and not the lines needed to communicate PD support, those will work exactly the same as the same janky USB A-microUSB cables they used to come with, supplying 5V/2A. You throw those away the second you get them and replace them with the decent quality cables you bought in bulk from AmazonBasics or something.

True but pretty much the only devices that need those are high-end SSDs and laptop docks and in both cases you just leave the cable with the device rather than pulling it out of your generic cables drawer.

I mean even Apple hasn’t released a laptop without a 3.5mm headphone jack, going back to the Macintosh Portable in 1989†. Even the 2017 MacBook 12 inch that only had a single USB-C port still had a headphone jack.

1/4th>3.5mm

Oh wow you need a dongle? Why don’t laptops include 1/4th jacks, there were perfectly fine, industry keeps changing things

†edit: looks like the PowerBook Duo subnotebook series between 1992-1997 also lacked headphone jacks