Running cables through boxes

My colleague asked me to ask this question as we almost came to blows over it... he was apparently taught you can't run a cable THROUGH a box it doesn't terminate in... (imagine a row of sockets on an RFC... his method would have you cutting the cables at each box and jointing them?)  I... failed to see the logic and said rude words about the person who taught him. Has anyone else ever heard of this?


The argument given was that you couldn't remove an intermediate box if there was a cable running through it, but how often does a circuit need modification, and even if it does, the person removing the box should be capable of jointing the cable, or, as there'd be remedial making good to be done, replace the severed length of cable? (we're talking buried in walls in tubing or capping, house badger style, not proper surface conduit work, where he agreed that no cutting would be necessary as you can unthread and rethread the cables)