And if they did, I would argue that they would be just as dangerous, because there is no way of knowing whether they are connected on a given cable without digging out a multimeter. except for some extremely rare cables that you will most likely never come across that don't connect the 5V power, which are effectively indistinguishable from non-compliant cables unless you pull out a multimeter. USB cables are usually "sexed" in a manner that compells correctness of application A system with MM or FF cables has significant potential for "dangerousness". It's possible that it came with a special cable that had the power pins not connected to avoid the problems talked about above.

Unfortunately Microsoft doesn't say what "host controller that supports debugging" means in USB terms, but it probably means OTG circuitry. What makes them dangerous is that the USB cable provides power, and USB hosts are in general not designed to accept power coming in the wrong way. This in and of itself is not really a major problem, provided the source has appropriate current limiting to prevent the cable heating up and starting a fire. Chris has personally written over 2,000 articles that have been read more than one billion times---and that's just here at How-To Geek. Starting off with a manifestly obvious statement followed by a couple of low grade denigrations is a strange way to start out.

as real users, posing a threat to a site’s security, so the site sometimes runs random security checks. USB A connectors also cover their connections within a housing, so there is no risk of the connectors inadvertently touching anything else and damaging the USB circuitry or the other equipment. Perhaps because the USB-A connector is shorter than the USB-B connector, so chinese external hard drive enclosure vendors decided to use it because it was a half a cent cheaper than the proper connector. For longer distances, active cables exist that contain an internal repeater or USB hub to regenerate the signal. As it is now these cables are supported only for limited cases, cases where it is assumed the person knows which is the right cable.

USB-A/male to USB-A/male cables are in the table of valid cable assemblies, but the wiring is very specific and perhaps counter intuitive to be a valid assembly.The news he's broken has been covered by outlets like the BBC, The Verge, Slate, Gizmodo, Engadget, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, ZDNet, The Next Web, and Techmeme.