Apple has had the same problem for years. I dont understand why the companies dont want to use better cables/other than making lots of money on selling spare parts).
The idea of not bending the cable doesnt go well with the intended use of the device.

eviling
Apple has had the same problem for years. …

I was about to say the same thing, I used to work in an electronic store and I sold more chargers for MacBooks than for any other laptop, exactly for this reason.

The Apple charger cable is hideously thin and always fails right after the strain relief boot.

While these Apple and MS chargers can do with improvements, I would though personal observation, put these failures down to operator error more than design fault. Put it this way, I have some friends who I wouldn't even lend even a MIL-STD-810G laptop to.

As I'm affected by this I've bothered to read all the info.

This is the standard figure of 8 cable. It didn't have enough strain relief built in because they were doing that design nonsense that you normally get from Apple.

The recall is something that can be replaced by a £2.50 cable on Amazon. This isn't like MBP power cables or similar of which I know no one who has used theirs daily for 2 years and not needed one £60 replacement!

Thick copper wire makes a huge difference to the price of a laptop, or course. Meanwhile, has apple still not fixed screengate or is that still rumbling on?