shifter cables needed?

I made the classic mistake of trying to tackle too many things at once... I have the car up on the lift, and needed to address the rear control arms per the alignment shop. Also had to change the front outer tie rod ends, so I am working on that, as well as the front tuning forks. While I was waiting for parts, decided to throw on the rear brakes I already had on hand, but then had to wait for the brake pad shims. So, I figured now is a good time to put in the 997 short shifter. Oh boy. I removed it fine, but noticed play in the passenger side cable end (at the ball/socket), so I am going to replace both of those ends. Then I read about cables snapping in the 997 section, so should I proactively replace the cables too? I'm assuming the stock 996 cables are the way to go even with the 997 shifter (after all that is what is in the car now) but have also read about Cup Edition and Numeric cables. At what point is it too much vs "while you are in there?" Never had a problem with cables binding or shifting itself, just thought there was some play and the 997 would be a nice conservative upgrade.

I have numeric cables with their shifter. Im pretty sure u can use them on a stock shifter. They r a very high quality cable. I would figure stock cables would be fine for most applications. Cost and availability will probably drive this decision.

Numeric cables are not that much more expensive than stock ($450 vs $311) but I'm not sure if this replacement is a priority. If 996 cables are known to last 100k+ miles in most situations, then I will just keep what's in there. It's only because I read about a lot of 997 failures, stranding people, that I thought it might be a good idea to proactively replace.

Dont think i have seen anything about 996 cable failures, just them popping out of the mounts.