Helicomatic was a great idea that was poorly executed... like SB once said, if the hub has been designed properly it would not have been as prone to breaking drive side spokes and the excellent design of the cassette and tool would have not been needed as often.

They seem to hold up well under light use but for loaded touring they did not find a lot of favour.

Take a modern cassette hub with a decent build and spoke breakage should not be much of a worry.