I have a friend who likes to say "too soon old, too late smart." Initially I thought that the braid would give the harness some stiffness and that would help me get it into position once inside the body. That might be true, but I didn't account for how difficult it would be to get it through the F-hole. I ended up doing something like what you suggest where the connections came loose. My original idea was (I thought) an elegant way of providing shielding and avoiding ground loops...but it worked better on the bench than in the bass.

I also thought about using shielded wire, but rejected it when because I need a bunch of different colored wires to remember where everything needed to go. That's when I started thinking about using the braid tubes...

You are right about the words too. I am pretty sure I know why they are called "F" holes now.