For me at first 5ft felt a little short, in fact I used a coupler to go to 5'6", but eventually I got used to the 5ft hose. I'm not a large person, though, and my first stages all have end ports that add a bit of length. I agree that the long hose is far more comfortable because of the lack of push-pull on the mouthpiece. Eventually, if the idea of a modified hogarthian routing for recreational divers catches on, hopefully hoses will be readily available in 6" increments from 5ft to 7ft. I'm sure you could get custom hoses made to length.
Edit; I think one benefit of the braided hoses is they supposedly last a lot longer, maybe more-or-less lifetime.