Shouldn’t it be possible to make a copper wire with distributed gaps made from insulator over all wire length?

Your proposal will not prevent current hogging the low-inductance path around the periphery of the conductor. That's called skin effect. My addition to your image (in red) indicates current density at high frequencies: -

The redder the colour the higher the current density. Note that current density in the middle is zero and, this is wasted copper.

You seem to be missing the main reason to use Litz wire; by design it forces a wire "strand" at the edge to move into the centre of the bunch every few cm thus, the net inductance is increased and the vast wilderness of unused copper in the centre is much better utilized for the same amount of copper used.

All strands take turns at moving to the centre. In fact if you cut through a section of Litz wire that is carrying a high-frequency current, all the strands are pretty-much carrying the same current thus, even though the copper area is a bit smaller, the avoidance of skin effect will more than counter this issue.

The technical downside of Litz wire is that if you are both passing a high current at DC and high frequency currents, you lose out on the DC losses. So, you have to decide what is best for the application.

You can also consider copper pipe as a better alternative to what you propose because, although it leaves a big hole in the centre, it doesn't disrupt the mid to outer regions. In fact small copper pipe is used for this very reason.

Shouldn’t it be possible to make a copper wire with distributed gaps made from insulator over all wire length?

Your proposal will not prevent current hogging the low-inductance path around the periphery of the conductor. That's called skin effect. My addition to your image (in red) indicates current density at high frequencies: -

The redder the colour the higher the current density. Note that current density in the middle is zero and, this is wasted copper.

The main reason to use Litz wire is this; by design it ensures that a wire "strand" at the periphery will move into the centre of the "bunch" (and then out) every few cm thus, the net inductance is increased and the vast wilderness of unused copper in the centre is much better utilized for the same amount of copper used.

All strands take turns at moving to the centre. In fact if you could cut through a section of Litz wire that is carrying a high-frequency current, all the strands are carrying the same current thus, even though the overall cross-sectional copper area is a bit smaller, the avoidance of skin effect will more than counter this issue.

The technical downside of Litz wire is that if you are both passing a high current at DC and high frequency currents, you lose out on the DC losses. So, you have to decide what is best for the application.

You can also consider copper pipe as a better alternative to what you propose because, although it leaves a big hole in the centre, it doesn't disrupt the mid to outer regions. In fact small copper pipe is used for this very reason.

What you propose will not prevent current wanting to hog the low-inductance path around the periphery of the wire (holes or not). My addition in red: -

The redder the colour the higher the current density. Note that current density in the middle is zero and, this is wasted copper.

You seem to be missing the main reason to use Litz wire; it forces a wire "strand" at the edge to move into the centre of the bunch every few cm thus, the net inductance is increased and the vast wilderness of under utilized copper in the centre (that would otherwise contribute to higher ohmic loss) is much better utilized for the same amount of copper used.

You can also consider copper pipe as a better alternative to what you propose because, although it leaves a big hole in the centre, it doesn't disrupt the mid to outer regions. In fact small copper pipe is used for this very reason.

Shouldn’t it be possible to make a copper wire with distributed gaps made from insulator over all wire length?

Your proposal will not prevent current hogging the low-inductance path around the periphery of the conductor. That's called skin effect. My addition to your image (in red) indicates current density at high frequencies: -

The redder the colour the higher the current density. Note that current density in the middle is zero and, this is wasted copper.

You seem to be missing the main reason to use Litz wire; by design it forces a wire "strand" at the edge to move into the centre of the bunch every few cm thus, the net inductance is increased and the vast wilderness of unused copper in the centre is much better utilized for the same amount of copper used.

All strands take turns at moving to the centre. In fact if you cut through a section of Litz wire that is carrying a high-frequency current, all the strands are pretty-much carrying the same current thus, even though the copper area is a bit smaller, the avoidance of skin effect will more than counter this issue.

The technical downside of Litz wire is that if you are both passing a high current at DC and high frequency currents, you lose out on the DC losses. So, you have to decide what is best for the application.

You can also consider copper pipe as a better alternative to what you propose because, although it leaves a big hole in the centre, it doesn't disrupt the mid to outer regions. In fact small copper pipe is used for this very reason.