The reason is that like with the iPhone 14, in the non-Pro models they put the SoC from the previous year’s Pro model, and that one was only designed for Lightning so only USB 2.0. So the non-Pro will get USB 3 once the USB 3-supporting SoC trickles down from the Pro.
I doubt your typical apple user will use the usb port for anything other than charging.
If they are going to improve transfer speeds it’s not going to happen in the same iteration they’re being made to switch to usb c for two reasons:
Number 2 is probably a bigger deal than people realize. They want to save face.
The reason is that like with the iPhone 14, in the non-Pro models they put the SoC from the previous year’s Pro model, and that one was only designed for Lightning so only USB 2.0. So the non-Pro will get USB 3 once the USB 3-supporting SoC trickles down from the Pro.