Relative advantages of bots and server-side tools

This comparison of bots and server side tools addresses the topic of whether it's best to have changes to the wiki made by tools (e.g. extensions or maintenance scripts) that run directly on the server or on clients that interface with the server. For example, when fixing double redirects, one can run fixDoubleRedirects.php (maintenance script) or redirect.py (Pywikibot script).

Advantages of bots
Using bots is more of a decentralist solution, in that it enables individual bot owners to make code changes rather than requiring that all code changes go through a central reviewer(s), viz. the group of users with shell access. Some bot code may be less expensive to run, especially if the bulk of the operations (e.g. figuring out what changes need to be made, rather than actually making the changes) can be performed on the client's computer rather than consuming possibly more expensive server resources.

Advantages of server-side tools
Server-side tools may have a nicer interface sometimes, e.g. special pages that cause tools to be run. E.g. Extension:DeleteBatch could be easier to use than delete.py. There do not seem to be many bot frameworks available that have polished GUIs, although some users prefer command lines to GUIs anyway.

With server-side tools, the code is available to the wiki owner; this might not be the case with bots, unless the bot owner shares the code.