I figured unless I am around a rolling chair I don't really need the crush protection anyway.. It's more that I yank on the cable. My high end VNAish cables unfortunately do not have the spiral in them.
It's kinda like seatbelts, I guess. 'Unless I am going about crashing my car I won't need them anyways'. You don't need it untill you do.
Besides, in the case of VNA cables, it also helps enforce minimum bend radii, and ensuring that the actual center coaxial cable is subjected to almost no force, to make it as phase- and amplitude-stable as possible. Similar to the ruggedized VNA ports, where you first connect the actual RF coaxial connector (be it 3.5, 2.92, 1.8, 1 mm) and then have a massive outer threaded connector you tighten, which actually takes over mechanical.
And the HAMA cable is a delight to work with. The metal spiral actually makes it very nice to bend, as it becomes stiffer as you bend it further, giving it a very nice behavior towards bending.