I always come down a stud to a box, not across through holes in a garage if the wall only finished on the outside, but in a dwelling, as long as at least one side of a wall is finished we can go through studs horizontally, this was debated at state level here, and they concluded that if the wall has a finish on one side the NM is not subject to damage.
Open building studs that are not finished are just that, there is no finish to follow closely to.
now if you were to install the NM across the front of open studs, then 334.15(A) would require running boards.
I get a kick out of people who think NM is so dangerous when exposed, but have all kinds of fragile lamp cords plugged in and laying all around their house and some that can even be walked on, yet want to go full bore protecting NM which has two full insulating layers protecting it.