Finding a decent hub is a minefield, but I don't think this is the fault of USBC as a specification. It's just the incentive towards cheap manufacturing.

If watching a load of videos from the legendary bigclive has taught me anything, its that electronics can be built sometimes very well, and sometimes very poorly.

When people buy hubs on Amazon they will consider the features (ports), the appearance (nice and shiny to match the laptop), and the price. What they often fail to consider is what's on the inside.

We can't see what's inside and assume that any hub is as good as any other, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Electronics can be built with a whole load of extra components that go above and beyond the baseline. Extra electronics to do things like help prevent overheating, smooth out rough voltages, or prevent damage to themselves or other electronics they are connected to.

But these components cost money, and so the incentive is to leave them out to keep the price down, while the budget instead goes to making sure the case is shiny and there's a premium-looking braided cable, because those are the external (and often false) indicators of 'quality' people are looking at.

This is very different scenario from when the ports are built into in the computer/laptop itself, because in that situation the equipment price point is already expensive - so the engineers will have leeway and incentive to make sure the ports and surrounding electronics are of high quality.

I'm thankful to bigclive, because now I avoid no-brand cheap electronics like the plague. Even if they function to start with they may not last long, and they definitely aren't being gentle on my connected laptop while they are at it.