Kmart lied to me, so I hacked their lamp [video]

I am really missing an explaination of how the cable and PCB were non-standard and if that would have been fixable. This feels more like building a new lamp for an existing housing than hacking the existing one.

There's a pinned comment on the video about the cable:

    For everyone that's interested, the included USB cable is wired like this:
    
    GND    -------> GND
    D+  -------> VCC
    D-   -------> VCC
    VCC -------> VCC
    
    So it is a non-standard cable! I measured by checking continuity between the USB A plug, and the USB C connector with a USB A adapter on it. None of my probes are small enough for a USB C connector's pins directly.

    There was a bit in the video about this that ended up on the cutting room floor, my bad!

Where do you even get a cable like that? If the answer is "they made it themselves" why go with a USB-C connector then? Seems like any old barrel connector would be both cheaper and easier to work with.

Unless it was really to put "USB-C" on the box.