This may sound a bit pedantic here, but this statement:
" I’m writing this on an Apple MacBook Pro, and all I got was four lousy USB-C ports"
Is wildly inaccurate, as the author demonstrates in his conclusions where he explains that he's settled on a Thunderbolt hub.
Yes, they're more expensive, and yes, they're harder to find, but the fact is, for this type of use USB-C is kinda junky, and Thunderbolt is a much better option.
the Dell TB16 is just about the worst docking station I've ever used and that was Thunderbolt 3, and their USB-C equivalent (WD16 iirc) worked flawlessly.
Likely if you tore down the TB16 you would find the chip mentioned in TFA.
I've dealt with a number of these docks. And yeah, it's a Realtek NIC on them, and it's a total piece of crap. Endless issues with these docks, firmware updates, new drivers constantly... None of it ever helps.
I tried using it on my Mac. But it's on some kind of an Apple blacklist and won't work on Macs. There was some way to enable it, by turning off system protection or some shit... But even then, you could not get all the functionality.
I have never gotten the TB16 to work on anything other than Dells of around the same era. I don't think it's Apple blacklisting it, but rather the dock whitelisting things.
No when you plug it into a Mac, it literally says "Unsupported" in the system report and will not work. When I got it partly working at one point, I had to edit some kind of system file that basically allowed the device to be used. And it still didn't work well.
I agree - Thunderbolt is the way to go. It's typically 2 - 3x the price of a USB-C dock, but it's well worth it for me.
I have the TBT3-UDV and caldigit TS4 TBolt dock. They both rely on DC power supplies and higher quality components (intel NIC, for example). Both have been very stable over the last year for the TS4 and 3 yrs for the TBT3.
" I’m writing this on an Apple MacBook Pro, and all I got was four lousy USB-C ports"
Is wildly inaccurate, as the author demonstrates in his conclusions where he explains that he's settled on a Thunderbolt hub.
Yes, they're more expensive, and yes, they're harder to find, but the fact is, for this type of use USB-C is kinda junky, and Thunderbolt is a much better option.