Examples: USB-C, Apple Lightning, Charging/Sync Cable for Garmin Watches
Symptoms: After a short time about 50% of cables go bad with the symptoms: (a) cable works only intermittently, (b) cable only works when it is plugged in one way, even in that last case (c) the cable is still unreliable in that it connects and disconnects spontaneously (I'd like to plug in my iPad to my workstation to charge all day but it will connect/disconnect and I'll get harassed on the iPad with ceaseless asks if I want to let my computer share my photos and the computer telling me that the connection failed if I chose to not share photos.)
What's the root cause of this? Why does the industry tolerate this?