The flashlight comes with an USB A->C charging cable, as do the (low end) smartphones we have (along with USB-A power adapter for the phones). Thus probably no PD negotiation. Right?
A lot of flashlights and cheap gadgets have USB-C port but can only charge from USB-A port. The reason is that they cheaped out on including the resistors that signal legacy USB mode. The USB-C to USB-A cable has the resistors.
The smartphones should have proper USB-C port, I haven't heard of one with charging problems, and included USB-A cable cause cheap.
Aah, yes, the USB-A side always provides power, no negotiation needed for that aspect. There is still supposed to be some level of negotiation before drawing that much current (often just checking resistance, similar to the USB-C "dumb" mode), but obviously the device skipped that also.
