Power does tempt people to abuse it, and they regularly give in to that temptation. While I’m not in agreement with the person you are arguing with, I do believe people cannot be trusted with power, and therefore there need to be checks, and recourse, and the more power a person has, the more they need to be monitored rather than trusted. (Police are an example. Politicians are and example. Hollywood producers area an example.)

There is also a selection mechanism at play. People who like to abuse power seek it out.

Wow, both links gave me the same number! What are the chances!

They also received far more abuse than usb cables. We don’t generally anchor one end of a usb cable and then walk around erratically for hours everyday within the range of the cable (and now and then pushing it) with the device on the other end of the cable.

Those cables _were_engineered for more abuse.