I created a fresh MgT2e campaign to confirm this for my system. Opening NPCs from the Robot Handbook throws the following error:
(ERROR Script execution error: [string "MIGT2:campaign/scripts/npcs main.lua": 147: attempt to index global 'race' (a nil value)
I think already-opened NPCs being reopened may not throw the error. Either that or some NPCs don't throw the error. Tere were occasional inconsistencies.

