Duncan Di Saudelli wrote:

Crimps are inferior in every way apart from saving time and money.

That's not the whole story though.Whilst it is faster and therefore
cheaper to crimp , and I agree that apprenticeships used to teach
making-off methods for cables (and indeed peope like BBC and MOD and BT
had their own manuals for such tasks, and today companies still use such
methods), I have read studies which show the crimping method to provide
better reliability.

Firstly, the joint between the cable conductors and the crimp is a
cold-weld meaning a gas-tight joint with little or no chance of moisture
ingress

That's only true in the case of a very well made crimp using a tool
capable of applying seriously high pressure. A cheap hand tool would
not usually achieve this, and even the more expensive ratchet version
would struggle.

- solder is often full of pinholes

Is it? I'd have thought this would be the case only when a joint has
been inexpertly made. Presumably this is the result of not heating it
well/long enough for the flux to boil out.

which let in moisture

This is easily excluded by coating with vaseline or silicone.

and also may
self-contain flux residues which can break down over time.

But the honeycomb of solder should still be OK, unless you mean the
residue or its breakdown products will attack and break down the solder
itself.

Secondly, a solder-joint gives a mechanical point of weakness whereby
vibration causes a fracture whereas with a crimp the crimp itself provides
a degree of strain relief.

There are certain application areas where this is particularly problematic,
e.g. within machinery or on vehicles where motor or engine vibration is to
be expected. But you wouldn't expect vibration to be a problem in the
vicinity of a domestic consumer unit.

It is particularly discouraged to use solder in combination with crimp,
because it compromises flexibility, or to solder-coat the ends of stranded
wire intended to go into screw terminals, because in time the solder will
suffer cold-flow, lowering the pressure of the screw on the wire, thus
compromising the integrity of the joint.

But a direct wire-to-wire join without screw terminals should be perfectly
satisfactory if soldered.

Thirdly, repeatability is improved with crimping.

If you mean what I think you mean, namely that you are more likely than
with the other methods to get consistent quality (all joints equally bad
or good as the case may be) when making several joins in identical
circumstances (the same type and size of wire, the same crimp terminals),
then I reckon this would only be the case if using an expensive pukka
crimping tool. With the ordinary hand tool I'd expect the joint quality
to be highly variable.