Part of their pitch is that you don't have to carry your cables around (they did include 2 USB ports at the base just in case).
But I guess their mistake is pitching this as an iDevice charger from the start (see their video; very heavy focus on iDevices). And when they couldn't include a lightning connector, it became a deal breaker.
If you buy a phone you get a USB to Lightning cable. You can buy more of these if you want. Why is this a deal breaker?
There are a lot of devices out there that aren't Lightning and would benefit from a system like this, so 4 regular USB ports is a lot more useful than specialized connectors.
Or am I missing something?