High MU L finders : It is never proven that TT return of finders will be payed back (I never believed that and will never do), any MU payed is a loss for the miner.
Decay of finder being considered
not recuperated into claims,
then,
DSEC30 unamped, at 160%, in actual usage costs 105-106%.
All available finders, be them L or UL, costs between 100,8% and 106%. Old style MD- finders cost at the lower scale but they have no depth to speak of, F105 and F106 are roughly 102% (like F212 and EFS at circa 120%) but they have average depth. For deep UL finders such as F106 tiered up you need to stick into the finder at least 4k ped (which otherwise could be circulated with a cheap L) and on top of that use enhancers to bring your average cost to 106-107% if I am not mistaken. Which is pretty much the same cost as Terra Masters at circa 115%, just that the latter require skill.
Even MILF, if you buy it at 180%, in actual usage is 102,8% something.
So in effect you're talking about a marginal difference, per tier of depth, and tradeoffs which are highly debatable (such as sticking bankroll into finder).
And that is unamped. When you amp, particularly with Lvl3, 5 and D-Class, high depth and preamped finders are cheaper to use per ped spent than unamped TerraMaster or unamped F106 enhanced.
As one can easily see, in the actual reality of the entropian miner, each finder and class of amplification has its role and meaning.
Your claim would be correct only if the finder decay
would be recovered into mining finds, something which neither me have seen to date no proof of.
Amps : Here again you pay MU so that is lost and as far as I see mining now, the standard TT return is 80% - 90% IF unamped (altought I managed to get 1 run over 100% TT return again today), if you go amped, your standard return will even go down to 60% TT return depending the amp used.
Here is a worthy discussion about volatility per tier of amplification, but then again putting 4k into a F-106 ul vs amping F212 with lvl5 is not by any measure superior. Those k can carry one a very long way through various waves of tt return volatility and in correct areas can provide measurable constant 110% return after MU, as opposed to having to sell 10 ingots of blau at a time.
LA-taxed mining : means you pay from your TT return so here again losses for the miner.
There are no areas ingame which could possibly come close to Medusa or New Switzerland LAs (obviously considering wave/window mining). I would pay hands down 4-5% LA tax to hit azure instead of ares, for example. Is simply not such a clear-cut claim. Particularly on Calypso, the mining fields composition and mobs population make easily LAs a go-to choice in good conditions.
Just how many miners do you think fit into untaxed NE Shinook for lyst, gazz, belk and redulite? Not mentioning that it was for years the case that gazz was not dropping at Shinook, and there was only belk at 101% and sometimes redu, arguable if often enough. And also not mentioning that for redu best practice, particularly in the case of window mining, is d-class/lvl8 on high depth Terra, because it is not a capped ore like rugaritz, and not at all unamped/low amped. Which would indeed be the better choice if MA's choice of droprate control wouldn't be wavy.
Even indoor can have its place, even with amps. It is not so much about chasing hofs, that is the bonus pleasure, in reality it's about MU/time. While I am not in this position and I have no interest into it, I totally understand why Gilowska, Poprygayka, Delharrea or Lindqvist (and I misspelled all of them for sure) would play the way they do or did.
It is not at all the case for "don't do that", rather "be wary of that actually means". And no, unamped is not at all, by any measure, the golden goose of safety. With appropiate budget, I've seen way way better times and avg return with lvl2/3/5 than unamped, each with its own place and target. Speaking of excels, at 150k+ I am at 96,9% (including finders and excavators as not recuperated cost) tt roi (not including my 17k tower), most of it amped lvl2-5, with occasional D-Class runs. My worst volatility runs have been the too short ones (100 drops or so), nomatter if amped or unamped.