Yep, gave up on that Catek/Flow hybrid idea rather quickly. Just went
to hard boots 100% of the time. Raichle 123s for most days, Lowa
Struktura AT Ski Boots for powder and backcountry days.

The cables are plenty strong these days. Before I stopped using them
this past winter, my Flow BX-21s had well north of 50 days with no
problems. My wife has a pair of FL5s from 2000 that have easily 100
days on them (she has just one pair of bindings) with no trouble.
She's gone through 3 sets of foot straps, but those are easily replaced
for a song at the end of the season. Actually, she threw a screw once,
but after a dab of locktite on the replacement, we've never had any
trouble.

In my experience, there are two possible problems with Flows. They
don't seem to work well for guys who like lots of forward lean. Also,
some boots with wide heels don't fit all that well.

The Catek's were higher performance (closer to hard boots), but I
*hated* sitting down to strap in.