The "$12 neck pillow from an airport kiosk" part made me laugh because I always walked past those thinking they were junk for tourists. Turns out the cheap stuff sometimes just works better than the fancy version.

Seriously, a screaming cat is your big problem?

Wow, I have to say I see it kind of the other way on this one. A gritty throttle through the whole range is already a red flag, and honestly that should get caught at annual long before a preflight, not by the guy who happens to notice it three weeks later. The real problem in your story is not that pilots miss it on a controls check, it is that two other people flew a plane with a known bad cable and the owner let it slide since Idaho. I do check free and full travel on every preflight, but a worn spot inside the housing is not something you can see or feel from the cockpit until it is already bad. So I guess my pushback is this, we lean too hard on the preflight to catch stuff that belongs in the shop. Good on you for pulling the panel and swapping it, that is the part that actually saved somebody.