I have some initial thoughts on why one over the other, but these two organizational tools seem pretty redundant right? Tags can just be abstracted up to Categories. I imagine the main functional difference is that tags are used online more for filtering data. Can someone explain to me WHY Categories are a thing and share their use cases that make them necessary.
I am managing data and maps for a large project, primarily with non-GIS folks (biologists, engineers) so they just want ways to filter the data, view it and order maps with particular feature layers. For instance for Wetland Survey Spring 2020 I may tag it: 'Wetland' and 'Current'. Then replace 'Current' with 'Archive' once 2021 hits.
Thanks for the insight!
Zach