Yes, the USB MSD is a great way of handling this, agreed.
I think the quality of cables varies a lot. USB-C is orientation-independent. USB-A is not. So if you have a cable that needs to be plugged in a particular way they have only soldered one way to the cable’s USB-C side… 
yikes…
Hmmm - maybe I inserted it wrong the one time I tried the USB-C orientation that didn’t work. In any case I think the useful part of my post is just to chime in as another user who had success with a USB-A to USB-C cable specifically.
Yeah! That is certainly welcomed; thanks for the comments.