This is interesting. I did my garage from the studs out. Using conduit to run electrical never even occurred to me. I think it would be a real bitch to drill holes through each stud level enough to push a rigid conduit through. Maybe there are some flexible conduits, but now you're taking a 1/2" hole and making it a full inch, in a 2*4, which is nominally 1 and 3/4". But now I'm thinking they did it with Bx, and maybe I'm not fully versed on why. I know the shielding acted as a ground as well.

I'm rambling. I think there's some rationale that's not just capitalism=bad. Code is okay with running straight Romex through studs, so long as you staple and whatnot. Maybe it'd be above code to use conduit, but I think it's just a lot of extra work for not very much payoff. So yeah, capitalism=bad, I guess.