Are you slow? nobody is arguing that you can hot swap a GPU. That’s not what people are correcting you on.

YOU claimed that PCIE is not PLUG AND PLAY

NO. PCIE is not plug and play.

That was your comment. It was wrong. You were wrong.

Dude… you’re the one that said PCIE isn’t plug and play, which is incorrect. Plug and play simply means not having to manually assign IRQ/DMA/etc before using the peripheral, instead being handled automatically by the system/OS, as well as having peripherals identify themselves allowing the OS to automatically assign drivers. PCIE is fully plug-and-play compatible via ACPI, and hot swapping is supported by the protocol, if the peripheral also supports it.

For a non load bearing wall, the biggest consideration is going to be hanging drywall which is why you’ll see either 16" or 24" OC (to align with a 48" wide sheet). Since the wall isn’t meant to hold any weight above it, there’s a little more flexibility in where you place your studs, so you’re probably fine without that extra stud.

That being said, check your local building code, there might be a regulation for that.