There was a thread debating this a while back... I think most people came to the conclusion that where the side brace meets the lining becomes a stress riser, and likely to split there if anywhere, and is a pain to repair because you can't splint it due to the lining being in the way. The cloth tape stops splits from spreading just the same, but without the stress riser effect, and thus is better.
I haven't heard much about beliefs on strength/stability of sides benefiting from having braces, or effects on tone. My personal feeling is that they might help long term stability a little bit, but for the most part the forces involved aren't pulling in a direction that they matter much. Tone, I can imagine that it would make a small bit of difference. Hard to say whether good or bad though. Do vibrating sides make a pleasing, if small, contribution to the overall mix? Or are you better off trying to keep them as motionless as possible so as to focus all energy into the plates? They do have a tap tone, but it's rather high pitched, like the upper bout of the top, and thus probably irrelevant. Although it does amuse me that we (or rather, the guitar buying community) so religiously cling to having matched side and back wood if the side species is purely a thing of appearance. Wouldn't it be far more logical to save those Brazilian sides and make 3 and 4 piece backs?
Anyway, getting back to side braces, I have a fun idea to try next time. Since I build with tentellones, and notching linings by chisel doesn't sound like my idea of a good time, I'm going to try using combo tentellone/side brace/back brace feet, and then glue short kerfed lining strips between them for the rest of the back linings. Basically what I did last time, except for having them extend all the way to the soundboard to act as tentellones in addition to the other roles, which also eliminates the stress riser at the gap between the side brace and the soundboard lining. And for the upper transverse braces (top and back), it makes a nice square where the side braces connect them, which seems like it could help with stability (assuming you line up your braces, unlike the photo). I think I've seen that done on some classical guitars before.
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