Exactly. Get rid of MTUs. Tractor beams were here first.
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Go back to tractor beams, huh? Yeah. Why not? Iām in.
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Amazingly a noctis can actually move! 
When I can drop 5 MTUās in a location that can tractor then salvage, itāll make the Noctis obsolete.
So can the ship with tractor beam be combat probed though.
Iām not saying the MTUs make the Noctis obsolete, but they sure make the tractor beams and tractor beam bonuses much less useful.
Also a MTU can āmoveā too. Just pick it up, throw it out somewhere else. Admittedly more of a hassle than just burning your ship around, but with a 125km range itās rarely needed.
No you didnāt you said
Tractor beams have great uses in specific applications and on ships designed for them. They also donāt take up cargo space to carry around.
ok you know thatās a BS argument. Picking something up and dropping it is not the same as a ship mounted tractor beam.
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An MTU moves one object at a time, with a Noctis and multiple salvagers I can pull in more along with the MTU. If in riskier space, I wonāt drop the MTU until Iāve cleared the area - itās one more object to scoop if Iām attacked, as well as recalling drones if Iām in a PVE fit and not geared for PVP. I want minimal clicks if I have to GT*O of space to a safe.
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Youāre right that tractor beams donāt take cargo space. They do take a high slot though, which is sometimes better, sometimes worse than some cargo space.
Iām just sad that in the situations that Iāve been in where tractor beams and bonuses could have been useful, they werenāt because of MTUs.
The MTU only pulls in one wreck at a time. A Noctis (or in your case Porpoise) when fit with 3 or 4 tractor beams can be pulling multiple wrecks in parallel with the MTU. This allows your salvagers to be working at their peak efficiency and clear whole fields of wrecks much quicker.
Of course the MTU can pull it all in, but, it will likely take considerably longer. Which is fine, if you drop the MTU in advance with say your combat ship. But, that comes with disadvantages. As an MTU left to work a grid on itās own is vulnerable to combat probes, and will invite others to lay in wait for your return.
Effective range is arguably the principal attribute upon which to bestow a Tractor Beam - as itās intention is to bring far off items closer. So this would seem an entirely appropriate attribute for a salvaging oriented ship to have.
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To me a tractor beam adds about 25% to the profits from T1 Abyssal sites because I can grab the caches from 20 km away, saving a lot of time. I even have two for those rare occurances I can reach a cache before the first one is in range. I can often grab all but the most faraway caches. An MTU would be too slow to be comfortable, as youāre on the clock in those sites.
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Nice to hear theyāre useful there!
While I havenāt done much abyssal sites myself apart from a few T1s to see what it was about, Iāve heard from some people using MTUs there too. But I suppose when you stay on the move a tractor beam has benefits.
MTUs are dumb. They grab the closest eligible thing outside of its loot radius.
Most of the time the best loot comes off the last or near-to-last wreck in the site, this means if there is competition, you would have to wait for your MTU to decide it is time to get that particular wreck, a Noctis or Orca can reach out and grab the exact right wreck/can right away and pull it in.
Sometimes you canāt anchor an MTU, when your fighting on a structure you are likely not going to want to be outside of docking rage, so you wont want to deploy an MTU. This is particularly handy in Invasion content.
Edit: For the record, I am not saying MTUs are BAD, only they are dumb (ie not complex in itās decisions).
Sometimes the person popping them down is not so smart either. Things can be scanned down. Caused me to salvage a Noctis with a Noctis not too long ago. Took it in good stride but it was a decent Noctis. With tractorbeams. Because only idiots like me get their MTU scanned down by a Proteus in lowsec 
Would not have happened if I just salvaged the site with tractorbeams on the Noctis and was more paranoid about neutrals in local with a 90m brick. The fact I aināt gets me intel at the price of a garbage truck. That is also dumb, but at least somewhat useful.
MTUs are stupid. They pull at random. 1 wreck/can at a time. Not every player wants to take up cargo space with an MTU when they could fill it with loot and pull 8 wrecks in at onceā¦ also Mining ops. Pulling cans.
But letās keep going down this path of truly important existential questioningā¦ What is the point of salt? I mean, do we really need this overwhelming sensory catalyst to enjoy the true flavor of food? What is flavor??
Hereās the point of tractor beams: blitzing combat sites for sentient drops in your battleship, you eject when the site is done into your backpack frigate which is equipped with a tractor capable of pulling in from 20something km and two salvagers, maybe salvage tackle rigs, and some cargo expanders. It also carries spare drones in its own drone bay, and a supply of whatever ammo youāre using in your battleship. Use the backpack to salvage, leaving all the high slots and drone capacity on your battleship for COMBAT.
Hereās my backpack frigate I carry around in my ratting Praxis:
[Imicus, **Backpack]
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Salvager I
Salvager I
Small Tractor Beam II
Small Salvage Tackle II
Small Salvage Tackle II
Small Salvage Tackle II
Light Armor Maintenance Bot I x4
It should be noted here that this fit has a capacity of 829m3, which is enough to hold a LOT of missiles.
The only caveat to using a frigate in this way is that you canāt reboard with anything other than ammo in the cargo so you need to jetcan salvage/loot, reboard your battleship then scoop the can.
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Love the salvage Imicus, nice idea to put that in your frigate escape bay!
At the point that you eject it may be better to just drop a MTU though, and swap the tractor beam on your Imicus to a third salvager?
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i had a confessor with a cruiser mwd and a 50/50 split of tractors and salvager2s. Capable of 9k m/s, i took it into completed incursion sites from time to time if i was feeling bored.
Good times
it usually only takes one or two cycles, with the salvage tackle, to salvage a sentient wreck, even a carrier wreck. I can be out and back in within a minute or two, depending how far I have to travel to snag the wreck with the tractor. Thatās generally the only thing I salvage these days, 'cos Iām a lazy trout.
Ah yea, if you only want to salvage a single wreck your setup works well!
MTUs are pulling the nearest wreck at their point of activation - theyāve always been pretty consistent about that.
The point of salt is flavor.
As for the flavor: https://www.scienceofcooking.com/what_is_flavor.htm
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