I think the main reason is it allows for easier access to Tor hidden sides with a “regular” web browser. Consider a wifi network that exposed .onion domains via normal DNS, or a VPN, or other similar mechanisms. It’s not as good as Tor browser, but may be a lot more accessible.

The last hop off the relay is unencrypted breaking the security model.

Also, some browser features only work on HTTPS sites.

> The last hop off the relay is unencrypted breaking the security model.

Isn't that only true of using Tor to access regular websites, not hidden services?

Yes, thank you, I think I had the wrong idea, I probably didn’t know. I looked it up and: so long as the tor service and the web server are on the same machine, and operated by the same people - i think that’s true. But they don’t need to be on the same machine, or managed by the same person.

Some more info: https://community.torproject.org/onion-services/advanced/htt...