The headphones I currently use (on my head right now) also have physical reinforcement, but instead of zip ties it’s just a thin tensile wire I had lying around. Tied it around a cylinder piece that broke off that holds a rotatable insert, superglue, and lots of extra wraps encased in superglue… and it’s perfect! … outside of where I was dumb and got glue between the rotatable faces and now it binds up a bit, but otherwise great. Replacement parts would’ve been like $35+.

… I guess all of that is to say, physical reinforcement is excellent when it’s adding strength as opposed to replacing strength!