Good post, but for anyone considering solo mining. If you are solo mining with a low hash rate (just a few GPUs or CPUs) it will be a long wait in between blocks on average. This doesn't mean you shouldn't do it–I have been a Monero solo miner for two years and an enthusiastic supporter of solo mining as better for the network and often better for the miner–but you need to be prepared for these waits and the inherent luck factor.

If you have enough of a hash rate to get blocks reasonable often when solo mining, then it is a no brainer, IMO. You not only help the network, and come out ahead in terms of less less risk of being ripped off by a dishonest pool, but you also gain from lower transactions fees since you wont be receiving a lot of small pool payments.