alt Hacker NewsApple's woven USB-C cable gets dragged around with iPhones, iPads and laptops daily and manages durability at half the thickness. Durability doesn't require rigidity... in fact for a headphone cable, rigidity is the opposite of what you want. Stiff cables tug on the headphones and transmit mechanical noise.
You don’t wear your iPhone or iPad on your head with the cable plugged in all day like you do with headphones.
Apple’s USB iPhone cables wearing out prematurely is so common it’s a meme.