You are attributing malice, but they explained things pretty clearly in the presentation.
They are reusing the SoC of the 14 pro in the 15 (as they always do), which doesn't support USB 3. On the 15 pro they have support for USB 3, and you can bet it will propagate down the iPhone line next year.
The state of the current extraction-based economy is such that you have to differentiate Apple's greed (less cutting edge usually, costs more) vs Google's greed (wants to track you all the time).
I'd rather the up-front greed that may force me to pay for a Pro model rather than the ongoing & increasing greed.
Maybe not "malice" exactly, but Apple has been obnoxiously anti-USB-3 on iPhones for many years. Not only could they have planned ahead for the port change, they could have been supporting it over the lightning port.
It was especially bad when they added prores without a way to offload footage at a reasonable speed.
And there probably is an element of spite where they don't want the upgrade to USB 3 to come too directly aligned with the USB C switch.
They are reusing the SoC of the 14 pro in the 15 (as they always do), which doesn't support USB 3. On the 15 pro they have support for USB 3, and you can bet it will propagate down the iPhone line next year.