Have you had the third party cables longer than the Apple cable? It sounds to me like they’re just more broken in.

I can’t reproduce this.

Is it just UI glitch that can be fixed with a restart?

Settings > Screen Time > App and Website Activity

If they bought it on Amazon, there’s a good chance it’s counterfeit.

and that’s about it

The 120Hz display is too big of a detail to leave unconsidered.

My gripe with the plastic screen protectors is they’d trap in grit and would actually scratch up the screen over time.

A popular “hack” was to tear out the plastic screen protector and put on a tempered glass one anyway.

http://expensivestickers.com