NOT one of modern builders better ideas.............

Up north, I had a house that was constructed in the 60's. It needed work, and I did a ton of it. Among the things done, electrical repair. I ran wiring for ceiling lights, which the house had none in any of the bedrooms. I installed ceiling fans. I put recessed lighting in the living room. All done with conduit. Lovely conduit. Have problems with a wire, pull a new one. Want a separate switch for the light and the fan, pull an additional wire through (although I pulled and tied off an extra wire on rooms I ran wires to for this purpose). I did a ton of work on the house, then, work shut my shop down and I relocated south. I am quite happy down here, but, after renovating house up north, I opted to buy a newer house so I would not have to have all the fun again.
Being newer construction, conduit was not used. There are funny reasons from construction outfits as to why. One outfit claimed wires get damaged from mold and condensation from the conduit :) Yeah, he really said that. Quite obviously, it is a lot cheaper to drill holes to route through studs and staple wire to the studs, then, drywall over. What really sucks, having to trouble shoot wires when you have a problem. Having to run a wire or add on. The mental midget that did the wiring here had a weak wrist. He just couldn't torque the screws at the outlets and switches enough where they don't arc and eventually not work. I have chased down a few circuits where limp wrist caused a circuit to open. To date I have replaced three switches and three receptacles in different areas of the house. I am revisiting one circuit.
Two years back, all my outdoor lighting died. I traced it back to a bad connection in a wall outlet, in the hallway of the house, where they tied in for power. The arcing was bad enough to melt part of the outlet and blacken the wire. I trimmed the wire up and replaced the damaged receptacle. I am now trying to trace a different part of the circuit. I have power to the outlet in the hall, but, no power at the lights which daisy chain off one another. Conduit, I could trace the route along the way. Modern stapled wire, beat head on wall and try and guess where the shit goes. I pulled two of the light fixtures, one outlet and a couple switches to try and trace the problem. Found one dead neutral wire on one of the two light switches which run the lights, which won't be bad to fix, but I would like to find other end of dead neutral so as to make sure that end, the end that would be connected to breaker box, doesn't short out. If I had had the house built, it would have been conduit throughout............