I tried both hardened/annealed ni200 from the UK vendor and a regular soft ni200. Getting the hardened wire 2nd, I did my first builds on the soft wire. After making 3 builds with the annealed, I actually prefer the soft stuff. It's easier to wrap, and I would swear it has better flavor (maybe the annealed stuff needs to be cleaned).
If you are having difficulty with soft wire, just make some loose spaced wraps. When finished, compress it, and they magically make a perfect spaced coil in 10 seconds. The wraps don't even need to be similar, but after squeezing it they are very even.
Suppose I'm lucky, but softness/care aside, I don't see any difference building with kanthal than with nickel. I'm using a Lemo too, which a lot of people seem to complain about.