The EU laws are to blame. The law should have been "the manufacturer will implement USB-IF compliant charging and connectivity" instead of "there will be a port that has the same form factor as USB-C that can be used for charging".
I believe the second revision of the law will be to this effect, which Apple will comply in 2030.
The reason it wouldn't work would be that they put in hardware to prevent it from working.
Of course that's their fault.