Stephen,
Neg masks are mostly 'masks' to some extent, a normal 35mm format neg holder would usually show a 23x35mm aperture, rather than 24x36mm.
Perversely, the early Leica enlargers used a 25x37mm aperture and so created the loved/hated black line surrounding the whole picture area.
That became associated with Magnum photographers (dating back to the 1930s and '40s) as there was the demand (from the photographers) that their photos were used in their entirety, to avoid misinterpretation.
But generally, 99% of negative carriers mask the negative area to some small extent, to prevent black lines appearing at the edges.
Jeremy Kime