Thunderbolt and USB-C ports look identical, and they work in pretty much the same way. The broad-brush answer is that ...

Both Thunderbolt docks and the best USB-C hubs and dongles provide legacy ports (USB-A, microSD, and others), and connect PC peripherals like mice, printers, external hard drives, and more.

Using appropriate cables, you could achieve 4x performance from a single port. Many use Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C interchangeably, but they have very different applications. USB-C is a type of port ...