Around here, we have used NM cable exposed in unfinished resi garages, crawl spaces and basements for many decades with no raft of life threatening incidents, so I don’t know why it has turned into such a big deal over nothing for the NEC, at least for the last couple of code cycles anyway.
As far as the GFCI under the sink for the receptacle for a dishwasher, in residential, if that’s a damp location, then I’m Brad Pitt.
