Dan_ie Faster file transfer over USB 3.1 or 3.2 is just one good benefit to have over USB 2.0. As you said, LocalSend is awesome, I use Quick Share and it’s equally awesome so there really is not much need to use cable connection to transfer stuff.
But with 3.1 or 3.2 you get significantly higher power output, extremely useful if you need to quickly charge your earbuds/smartwatch/other phone/anything or something like that when you are far from any wall, with 2.0 that either doesn’t work or it caps at 5W speed which is slooooow. Yes, I’m talking about charging those with your phone.
It goes the other way too, USB 3.1 and 3.2 will almost always provide fast/rapid charging, while with USB 2.0 that often times is not the case, you can see that across this actual forum where people can’t hit full advertised 65 W (or 55 W for other phones) but their phones draw much less. It’s like a lottery where everything has to fit perfectly to win, while with USB 3.1 or 3.2 you can fairly easily achieve up to 240 W (if other specs allow that) as the overall compatibility is simply far wider. Sure some phones like Realme GT5 have 2.0 and 150 W charging speed, but you need a perfect cable, and a perfect charger to realistically hit that. With 3.1 and 3.2 if you have a phone that can be charged at 150 W you can take any cable able to push 150+ W through and any PD 2.0 or newer charger rated at 150+ W and you will get those 150 W in your phone.
Then 2.0 OTG cannot drive external displays, that’s not that important for many users, but many would like to pop their phone to a TV or a PC monitor and work that way while writing emails/docs - and get their phone charged simultaneously. Or to simply show photos/vids they took on a nice large screen at their friend’s place. Cable in, quick and easy, a lot of people I know use that actually.
You can’t even use a USB 3.1 or 3.2 HUB with 2.0 to drive two or more external drives, like USB flash/pen drives, or external SSDs or HDDs, again that is not necessary to many people but perhaps it’s not necessary to them because they can’t use it in the first place due to being stuck with 2.0 and 2.0 can’t provide enough mA to juice those drives (its peaking at 0.9 mA, but just one external SSD or HDD needs 0.8 mA to operate, so with two one will constantly disconnect as it has no power to run). But being able to plug a HUB in with 2-3 drives, then transfer (with MUCH higher speeds) stuff from/to your phone and between drives, is one quite handy feature to have.
You want to quickly send/receive large vid/file from/to your friend’s phone because you are in a rush? You’ll need USB 3.1 or 3.2 for that, as USB 2.0 will take an eternity (I was often in such situations and Quick Share can help there as that is WiFi direct, but it still cannot outspeed 10 Gbps USB 3.2 wired connection, it is actually approximately 4.5 times slower on average).
USB 3.1 and 3.2 are also far more power efficient than 2.0, applicable to all those scenarios mentioned above. In other words - you save power, meaning more battery life. Plug an external keyboard to USB 2.0 and it will always use 0.1 mA even if that keyboard needs only 0.04 mA to run. With USB 3.1 or 3.2 it can adjust perfectly in fly to 0.04 mA. Same with other connected stuff.
There are other benefits too, but these are just from the top of my head.
Edit:
Wat.
Edit 2: Btw, regarding file transfer in general… Phones usually have 256 GB on average, so about half of that is on user’s disposal after they install their apps, their games, when those apps and games cache everything they need so they grow (like Instagram alone can easily go in multiple gigabytes just in cache if you don’t clear it frequently)…
Now, we can agree that today phones can’t replace professional camera gear, nor DSLRs, but the emphasis goes on professional. Not every user is a pro videographer or photographer, yet today’s phones are absolutely perfectly capable to cover 80-90% of everyone’s needs (sans pros, obviously). You want to film a nice 4K footage? That will take a ton of space in gigabytes, easily 50-100 GB. You can plug the cable to your laptop and transfer that in about 50-100 seconds via USB 3.2 10 Gbps. Or in about 1700-3400 seconds via USB 2.0 480 Mbps. Significant difference when you are not at home but you are recording something with nice camera in your pocket. Yes, LocalSend/Quick Share can cut that in about half, yet that’s still 850-1700 seconds wirelessly, vs 50-100 over USB 3.2 🤷♂️
