90 percent of the wire I’ve run in my career has been open air, non armored FPLP cable. In our area the 8’ rule applies. I’ve been into a Home Depot in our area that had a system replaced at some point with all new cable. You can see just about every bit of it, and though its not willy nilly all over the place (it is strapped and has 90 degree angles) it still hangs kind of loosely in some places. So, it meets code, but it does not look pleasant, and as one of our old techs used to say “if I can see it, the customer can sure see it.” When I run my cable, I try to keep it up in the steel joists or beams even if the wire is going to be covered by a ceiling. If the ceiling isn’t going to be covered, I then make it as hidden and neat as I possibly can. I’m not as worried about neatness though if I know it is going to be covered, but I still run high, straight, and 90 deg. where possible. Recently came off a job where the deck was all flat concrete, so we shot up our own ceiling grid wire (specifically for our cable, not for ceiling use) with a powder nailer, then put batwing J hooks up on that wire to support our cable. It would all eventually be covered by the drop ceiling, so the AHJ accepted it. And hey, I’ll admit to having done some sloppyish wiring in my formative days in the field. But I have seen far sloppier than I have ever done and am no longer afraid to call our own guys out on their wiring.
Patrick