Greetings,
I think I have mentioned these things this in the past but I will say them again. Inspectors are emotional beings and, because they can make your life easy or hard, you need to keep their feelings in mind. Just like with other professions some are great people trying to help you accomplish a safe job efficiently -- but some, sadly, are plagued with inspectoritis.
One common symptom of inspectoritis is when inspectors want things done how they say instead of simply in a safe manner leaving the specifics to the contractor. I don't want to give my inspector a chance to specify how I "could" do this job because it might be beyond his ability not to turn that "could" in his mind into a "must".
Another common symptom of inspectoritis is filling in the blanks when the inspector is not 100% sure of the rules and sticking to it. I now know for instance that 300.4(E) does NOT apply in my situation. The inspector might say something about 300.4(E) and I could now explain exactly why it does not apply on the spot and the inspector might be willing to change his mind right then and there because he had not yet voiced a firm decision. If, on the other hand, I had called the inspector and he shot down the idea based upon 300.4(E) and then later I called him back up and told him why he was wrong what do you think my chances would be?
I think that this situation is handled by the code and because of input from John Grabowski and others I now have a much better understanding of exactly where and how it is addressed throughout the NEC. If the inspector shoots it down because of something I missed in the NEC and I am in the wrong then the worst that could happen is I must protect the cable with a plate. The inspector currently has no reason to make up a rule to fail it, in part because I have been careful not to allow such a situation to arise.
Hope this helps, William