The mainstream tech press really ought to have egg on their faces for the way they reported this back in 2016 (a date coming up for 5 years ago). Seemingly everyone who covered the 2016 Macbook Pros said that the lack of ports was only a temporary inconcenience, and that it should take maybe 1 or 2 years (one guy even said 6 months) for everyone to swap out their peripherals for USB-C ones.
Charitably, I could say they were referring specifically to users of those computers, but they downplay entirely how difficult it is to be individually committed USB-C while the rest of the world still uses USB-A. Like when someone hands you a flash drive, or God forbid, when your favourite accessories don't have a removable cord. And that's without even getting into the ubiquity of USB-A charging ports on public transport, built into the walls of people's homes, on the back of TVs, etc. My parents have a new-ish speaker system with a USB-A charging port for phones.
Even if every PC maker had switched to USB-C within the year, USB-A would not have meaningfully died until the majority of machines that lack the new port are taken out of service. So, five years at a bare minimum. But more likely 10. Quite possibly 15 at the rate things are currently going.