There is a big difference between discounting and dumping even on a year old product. And if you believe a single 3rd party had well over 30,000 "refurbs" that were in new condition with new inner packaging and low single digit battery cycles, then I have
a bridge in Brooklyn I'll sell you cheap. :-)
But I digress...back on topic.
An Xacto knife would've solved the problem for those people and their current cable. Most of those cables have enough plastic shroud around the connector that it can easily be shaved down a centimeter or so to account for the angle. That problem is different
than the problem where people had perfectly functioning hdmi with generic cables before the 8.1 update hit and then had no audio after. And the previous gentleman even bought the "original" cable upon recommendation and he still had the problem.