Sure, Nokon makes flashy compressionless housing out of little bits of metal, but they creak and click, and you can't get a good, precise adjustment out of them. Plus, they quickly eat through fragile paint such as that found on high-end steel bikes, while creaking and shifting poorly. Oh, and they corrode in salty conditions.
Gore makes expensive cables and housing, but the average bike observer can't tell outside of a five-foot radius that you're sporting Gore cables.
Average Bike Observer: "Is that a bicycle you've got there? I recognize that."
Bike Owner: "It just happens to be, yes."
Average Bike Observer: "What kind of bicycle is it?"
Bike Owner: "It's a Guerciotti X-Crow, 2009, with Sram Rival and wheels I built myself."
Average Bike Observer: "Oh, a Gary Fisher, eh? I like Gary Fishers. They're neat."
Bike Owner: "No, I said it's a Guerciotti."
Average Bike Observer: "Apology accepted. Where did you get the Gary Fisher?"
Bike Owner: "It's not a Gary Fisher. It's Italian. My cousin has a job that takes him to Europe every few years, and he picked up the frame for me in France."
Average Bike Observer: "Why did you need to go to France to get a Gary Fisher?"
Bike Owner: "IT'S NOT A GARY FISHER. LOOK AT THE DOWN TUBE, YOU MORON."
Average Bike Observer: "It's a forgery! They didn't spell Gary Fisher's name right. You got ripped off. Nice Jagwire cables though, are those Jagwires? Jagwires are neat."
Bike Owner: "A pox on your tardy-gaited household! Those are Gore Ride-Ons, you simpering sovereign of chaff and scrapple!"
Average Bike Observer: "Uh, thanks! I'll see you later!"
So cables don't make the bike: fashion-wise they're like seat collars, spokes, bar plugs, and stem caps: more or less invisible as long as they don't clash too badly. Cables are an important part of a good maintenance plan however. New cables and housing just put the icing on the cake of a well-tuned bike, at least until they stretch a bit and throw the whole world into despair.
This particular piece of housing made a bike shift very poorly: