I really can't see how Apple could ship a USB 2.0 USB-C port in an 800+ USD iPhone when an iPad for 600 USD has proper USB 3.0 (or whatever it's called nowadays) speeds

As for the robustness argument, sure, theoretically, the port itself is more robust with Lightning, but I haven't seen USB-C ports failing left and right, especially lately, so we should be fine. USB-C with 2.0 spec is still better than Lightning with USB 2.0 simply because of physical compatibility with other devices