There is a section of heat-shrink covering the termination of the outer jacket - "over the cut" as it were. There is not additional heat shrink completely covering the inner cables that extend out to the XLRs.
It's presence would make them stiffer and potentially can make them fold and wrinkle when coiled, at least with typical heat shrink. There are more flexible versions of heat shrink, but typically when looking for additional protection one would use woven Techflex or its equivalent, with the ends secured by short sections of heat-shrink that also serve as strain-relief.
If you really need that or not is one question. What was promised is another.
FWIW, my snakes don't use additional protection past the fan-out and I have no problem with them.