I know what you mean and agree. As I was winding up the cord on my drop
light a guy who climbs mountains showed me how he folds his ropes. I sort
of doubt there is a better way except using some type of motorized reel
like on a oil delivery truck, Fire engines...

If you're coiling up wire rope, there's no other way so it comes off
straight when pulled from the side of the coil. Otherwise you have to put
something through the center of it and let it come off like line off a
fishing reel.

One day, after I had come back from six years in the Gulf of Mexico, I was
at the docks at Lake Mead. They were doing some diving, and hooking up some
anchor cables. The reel lay on its side. The diver went down, and they
were throwing bights of wire rope into the water after him. I stopped,
thinking, "This should be good." Sure enough, the diver surfaces cussing
and a big tangle of wire. They were using some hefty stuff, too, I'd say
3/8" to 1/2". They finally took off a good length of it from the layed down
coil and layed it long on the dock, and fed it to him straight the second
time. I was going to say something, but what the heck. That's how you
learn.

Steve