You're failing to see the big picture.
Letting the inspector walk all over you for chump change merely enables the inspector and then you will get walked all over when you're talking real money.
Stop giving in to over-inflated inspectors egos and you won't have the problem when it comes to big money issues.
I get where you coming from, I really do. I never said that we should be walked on by inspectors and I understand that whenever possible we shouldn't feed the beast when it comes to inspectors that are cavalier in their application of code.
On the other hand, imho, we need to be realistic- What that inspector wanted was not that big of a deal. The inspector was mistaken, but c'mon. What he wanted was at least code compliant, wasn't entirely unreasonable, was cost neutral at worst, and would have taken all of two minutes to do-hardly worth a red tag just to prove a point. It should be sop to question inspectors, but if they ultimately won't bend over something this small, I still say let it go.
In many cases by arguing over something trivial like the op posted you
may make your job easier by making it clear you won't tolerate their nonsense, but it can also backfire big time. In many ahjs, being argumentative over this kind of stuff will not make your existence as an ec any easier down the road. You run the real chance of being seen as "that guy who does things his way" and this isn't good. Many inspectors take delight in punishing "citers" who always have a reason for why they shouldn't have to do something, no matter how insignificant it is. They do this to put them in their place and they nail them over every real or imagined violation they can. Its rotten and grossly unfair, but it happens all the time, so no, in many ahjs being argumentive over the small potatoes doesn't take care of a problem you may have later on "when it comes to big money issues."
There is no point is making unnecessary enemies out of people that could conceivably be in their appointed positions for 40 years and who you may have to deal with repeatedly until you retire. Remember too that while many inspectors are a huge problem (don't know, won't accept their boundaries and desperately need a code book), there are also many who are down to earth, pretty sharp (many have retired from doing what we do), do an overall excellent job and occasionally slip up (like we all do) when interpreting the NEC. They aren't bullies-their simply trying to do their job to the best of their abilities.
Imo, if we're going to risk getting tagged by one of these guys, we need to make sure its actually worth it, and I don't think that the ops situation qualifies.
