Yes. The simplest way of understanding it is: NC (or any software) can't recover details lost (ie. shadow captured as (0,0,0) or highlight captured as (255, 255, 255)*) because of poor** exposure.
* NEF is 12-bit per channel, not 8-bit. So, the 0-255 range is for illustrating the idea, not the actual values.
** Poor or not, depending on the photographer's intention. It's subjective.