The reign of the Lightning cable is over, and the USB-C era has begun — leaving us wondering what sets one charger apart from another. We do a teardown of Apple's Thunderbolt 4 and its competitors.
I read the article and I don't get your point. The article is comparing a supercar to some junkyard beaters and trying to make that somehow a fair comparison.
End of the day, no the $129 price tag isn't worth it. And you should know that as well, because that's literally Apple's business model (get them with the accessories). Yeah, it's a nice cable that can do some cool shit, but it's mostly feature bloat to explain away the ridiculous price.
So the cheapest version of this cable is actually $69. Didn't feel the need to point it out until now because I saw no point in quibbling over the actual price point.
Edit: I'll take your silence as to an alternative but equivalent cable as evidence no such cable exists as of yet.