While I can understand that you believe there is more to the sonic characteristics of cable than the engineering belies, it's important to note this: auydio cabling does not permanently change chemically or mechanically with 50-100 hours of use, making the concept of burn-in a bit of a stretch.

Comparing cabling to components of 20 years ago is an apples to oranges comparison: cables are solid state electronics, while the component issues you mention involve tubes, components that change with use by design. If cabling were to act the same way, then (like tube equipemnt) performance would deteriorate over time and parts need replacing in order to continue fuctioning.

It should also be noted that Consumer Reports, while not the audiophile reference, has always relied on real-world listening tests of all audio equipment reviewed. These results are combined with feature comparisons to develop their overall scoring matrix.

I do not intend this as an arguement, but I thought it important to examine the flip side of the coin.