Wendy, I'm interested to hear you say that about hygiene, because I had been thinking that would be the case, but my first experiences with my first belt have me rethinking it.
My issue is that I tend to get a lot of diarrhea (nothing to do with the belt, I just always do). I was really disappointed in how difficult it was to clean up the first time it happened in the belt (with the rear hole). Trying to clean up inside the belt, inside the hole and around it (keeping in mind there is a lining too) seemed to take me about 15 minutes and felt kind of like a diaper change (I used about 10 wipes that then had to go in the trash). Not sexy!
So I was wondering if I would have better luck with the cable. It would get dirty every time, but it seems like it could potentially be much easier to wipe down.