It's kind of funny, but I have never seen anything about this mentioned anywhere, and you have to conclude for the longest time nobody cared!
I guess maybe we are getting a little more refined, I don't know. once in a while you'd have a thread started by somebody whose column lever fell down a little bit (out of park) and they couldn't get the car started.
A person with a little fab skill could make another version, I'm sure. Modifying what you have just enough to avoid some obstruction might be easier than going to a cable, too.