This is one of my pet peeves. I wonder how much gear gets trashed every
day because of this? Power plugs should be standardized so that 'one
size' *doesn't* 'fit all'....

I agree!

Amateur astronomers often have Meade telescopes and SBIG CCD cameras. Both
run on 12 volts, a couple of amps. They take the same power connector.
With reverse polarities. The SBIG gear has reverse polarity protection.
The Meade gear blows a fuse and (if it's an early model LX200) explodes a
capacitor which is upstream from the fuse.