To be honest this is why I've never found a laptop that was a competent desktop replacement, and also why the rats nest of cables common to modern crApple products trying to do so is pure comedy gold...
... given that 15 to 20 years ago Apple owners were the ones pointing fingers and laughing at PC buyers for it.
Just as I have NO need for displayport on my USB since I have never even SEEN a display that used that connector. Just as I have no need for HDMI on my USB-C since I have multiples on my display card(s). And thus I get accelerated display not the pathetic crippleware of the M1. (the new mac's weak spots)
Even on my MSI laptop I have MORE USB ports than I'm likely to use. I don't get this "I have 20 devices I need to connect" situation because I usually have enough local storage or access to the NAS, so what the blazes am I connecting? Even on my little 4875T driven hackintosh DAW, I've got maybe five USB devices total? It's almost like the botherboard has 2 rear 3.0, 4 rear 2.0, 2 front 3.0, 2 front 2.0, and nothing I'd ever need to connect would even touch the speeds of 3.x (Midi converter, SB Extigy, EMU DAW, trackball, keyboard)... and even that can drive two displays before I have to start screwing around with adding video cards.
There's so much nonsense in USB-C and Thunderbolt, much like Firewire before them I just don't get why it's needed apart from system builders not providing or letting us put enough stuff inside the system. It's why the past decade of ALLEGED "pro" mac models has been an insult to every professional who ever needed a Mac for the things the platform provides that others /FAIL/ hard at -- like ASIO.
On top of their four-plus decades of sleazy dirtbag dishonest practices, shitheel rewriting of history and their place in it, and overall chicanery that would have resulted in ANY other company being prosecuted out of business, they've abandoned the one market that kept them alive; professional musicians, videographers and artists. They've literally told that entire crowd to go F*** themselves.
Your "issues" with things like hubs and goofball serial connections are merely a symptom of that.