To me that says more about sheaths covering cables than it does about noisy fans.
The extruder/hot-end is by far the least reliable, most often changed part of any 3D printer. I know it isn't pretty, but keeping everything out in the open where you can see it and reach it without having to take a bunch of "professional" looking plastic covers off helps prevent those problems and makes repairs and upgrades/changes to components much easier.
Here's an old photo of the extruder carriage in UMMD- it's a lot shorter now. The cables coming out of the drag chain all have connectors for individual functions- fans, heater, thermistor, motor. The wires from those parts run up to the drag chain and they are secured with velcro tape. The connectors are all visible and easily reachable:
Every once in a while I think maybe it's time to design and print some pretty covers, and then I decide to change something on the extruder carriage again and realize that it would have been silly to make covers.
Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [
drmrehorst.blogspot.com]