The problem with AES/EBU and derived signal standards (SPDIF for consumer price points) is that the sample clock is embedded in the bit stream. This means waveform integrity is everything since, well, it's the sample clock. The consumer coax variety is single-ended, meaning the shield braid or foil is also the signal return path, which degrades its ability to act as a shield. AES/EBU runs over XLR, so is both differential and has a shield separate from the signal return lead. TOSlink had the potential to be totally immune to noise and reflections, but the transceivers were made to be as cheap as humanly possible for the consumer market, and never performed well. Toshiba never targeted anything past a consumer audience for whom cost is everything.
Impedance matching is also critical, at 100Ω. Even though short runs will have trivial reflections, any reflection will manifest itself as sample clock jitter. This is simply unavoidable since the waveform contains the sample clock. (Not only that, but it will also be signal self-modulated!) SPDIF can be done perfectly well in this regard; however an AES/EBU or I2S (over USB 3, HDMI, or CAT5) interface from a reputable brand (not talking eBay kit stuff here) is almost guaranteed to do it right. (Even Chinese ones, like Audio-GD or Yulong Audio will design for proper termination.) And if it has an AES/EBU interface, use it!
The reason the sample clock is in the bitstream is that AES/EBU was intended as a digital replacement for analog interconnects; this means if the source plays a little faster, the clocking is sped up a little; if plays slower the clocking is slowed down. This is required for uses like maintaining frame-accurate sync with video (especially for transfers, or splicing between cameras or audio sources), between multiple channels, or trick play. For a purely home audio application it's obviously superior in every way to have a packet format that specifies the nominal sample rate and then flow-control the transfer to the playback device and let it clock it locally from a low jitter XO. But that doesn't work for many professional applications.