Thunderbolt vs USB-C: what the connector hides

USB-C is the shape of the connector. Thunderbolt is one of several high-speed protocols that uses that shape. That sentence is the entire answer to the headline question, and every page that ranks for this query opens with some version of it. The reason it keeps getting asked is that the visual is identical. A Thunderbolt 4 port and a basic USB-C 2.0 port look the same. The cables look the same.…