When is using your own Monero node preferred over connecting to Tor-only nodes?

cedarwind1:

does opening up my node via Tor only help the network (as in, more people have a trusted node to transact with), or do I gain some benefit too (perhaps by increasing the quantity of transactions I broadcast?)

RPC, no. Anonymous-inbound & tx-proxy = yes

cedarwind1:

From what you’re saying, running your own local node that proxies everything through Tor would be the absolute best option

best for whom? Your own privacy? Yes. Others? No. Proxying everything over tor disables incoming connections. To be most helpful to peers you must make sacrifices.

using Tor-only nodes (via Feather as a “trusted” source, as an example) would be the next best thing?

its probably the most private option for personal privacy. Tradeoff being slight centralization & trust