It's very rigid when new but does soften after a few washes, but not as pliable as fleece blanket. I have the green backed and the rubber backed. I loved the rubber back because it tends to come in nice patterns. My rubber backed is now about 4 years old and I am using each piece for the last time and binning it as the rubber is coming off and putting little bits of dust everywhere which is not good for piggies respitory tracts. My green back seems to be lasting much longer, I have one small piece that must be at least 15 years old, originally bought for my cat who had kidney disease. The draw back of vet bed is that it takes up a lot of washing machine space, I can wash 3 3x2 c&c size bits together against one piece of vet bed that size. This is why I went over to fleeece liners as with 3 large cages I was having too many machine loads of washing. I then went back to vet bed for my 5 year old boars as one has arthritis in a back foot/leg and he started bunny hopping on the fleece. The other 2 cages have fleece liners with strips of vet bed under the hides where they sleep as I find it keeps them dry where as the fleece liners had a tendancy to get soaked.
I think it's really down to personal preference as to what suits you and your piggies, it would be worth trying a small piece of vet bed before you spend a fortune. You can get small bits on ebay, and sometimes a very cheap end of roll if you catch it right.