Yeah, actually the seismic thing is real for hospitals but it's not about keeping bundles flat, it's about preventing the J-hooks from snapping if the building swings. The 4 foot spacing is code for a reason, but using it on regular commercial work is overkill unless your local inspector calls for it.

Wait, 11 man hours on a paper trail for a ghost that was just a parallel feed line? That's wild, man. You'd think someone would have caught that on the initial HF install, like a quick SWR check or just eyeballing the cable path before closing up the crown. In my experience, those new antenna jobs always seem to bite you weeks later, not right away, so I totally get the frustration. I once spent two days on a comm issue that turned out to be a zip tie too tight pinching a cable, so I feel your pain on the hidden culprit. Take this with a grain of salt, but I'd bet your next HF install gets a little extra scrutiny on the routing before anyone signs off on it.