The cable is still good for charging (if you need fast) and I like it a lot for CarPlay because in my experience wireless CarPlay has a ton of lag to it.

I do wonder what they do if they remove the port completely, how do they fix the phone if it gets truly messed up? Does it become like the watch where they just have to swap it out with a different one and send it back to Apple?

Unless they’ve changed it you still need a USB cable to sync directly from finder for the first time.