I'm could be skeptical about it and say that this was a dick move by Apple to get more money out of their customers. But honestly, it is an improvement and everyone, including myself, should move on to this plug. As
@Malcolmjr96 already said, it's easier to plug in. There's no up or down, no 50% chance that you try to plug it in wrongly and unwillingly damage your phone or charger.
I'm not going to pay extra for it though. If I buy a smartphone that uses this charger, it has to be included with the phone or the phone must be cheap and the charger doesn't make the whole combination more expensive than other phones.