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Besides the benefit of increased attempts, are there any other significant, measurable optimizations that mining pools provide? I'm referring to intrinsic functions such as non-duplication of failed "hashes" (assuming this is actually an implemented feature) that is a direct yield of mining hardware/software working in concert, not mining farm benefits such as economies of scale savings (i.e. group discounts on energy).

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Yes.

Usually if you would solo-mine you will need to update/download the entire blockchain, which as of right now, is 141GB.

If you join a pool, this isn't the case, You actually don't even need to be connected to any of the peers/nodes from the bitcoin network.

This could greatly decrease the money you would spend on bandwith in some countries, which could be another reason to join Pool-mining.

It also saves you a lot of time, depending on your internet speed.

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    Only if you are mentally challenged. See, the country does not matter if you can dump the node on a cloud or other cheap VPS. Also, you do not need 141gb - you can run it in pruning mode, only keeping like the last 1000 blocks around. Bandwidth - yes, but as I said... VM. -1, non sensible argument. – TomTom Nov 14 '17 at 16:13
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    @TomTom Be nice. – Willtech Mar 17 '18 at 4:25
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Apart from the hardware and programming, it is also beneficial to mine in a pool because:

  1. You probably require fewer maintenance staff.
  2. If you are drawing lots of electricity, you can generally get a better cost per watt from the network by negotiating a deal.
  3. You can more easily control external factors like temperature, disaster recovery, etc.
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  • 3 good arguments - for FARMS. None of them apply to pools, which collect hashing power from different people. – TomTom Nov 14 '17 at 13:36
  • @TomTom Yes, thank you. I'm referring to strictly pool benefits, not operating benefits of farms. I edited the question to clarify. – AgonyOfVictory Nov 14 '17 at 15:54
  • Yes, which is why I downvoted this answer. All arguments here are about farms. Whether or not my computers are part of a mining pool or not does not change any of the 3 elements. – TomTom Nov 14 '17 at 16:12

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