Fresh tomatoes are Usally pretty bland 11 months of the year. So canned is the way to go because they are ripe when canned and retain most of the flavors

You seem to mean off-season where you're saying fresh.

They are red they look like tomatoes they just taste like nothing that’s what I mean. Those are available most of the time the other kind almost never

I know what you mean. I get to eat really good tomatoes every few years, and just for a few days, then they are gone.

The good stuff spoils pretty quickly, too. It's not just the price that makes them uncommon

Grow your own or make friends with someone that does. I have more than I can give away during peak season

when they're off season, is the flavor still better? no use using something that tastes worse and consoling yourself that it would have been tasty had it been a different month

For the ~1 month I have access to local fresh tomatoes, I'm going to be eating them in fresh preparations like caprese salad, BLTs, etc. rather than using them on sauces. The remaining 11 months of the year, canned tomatoes are just fine.

I think this is a smart move. Your examples are cases where fresh tomatoes outperform canned. Sauces, not so much

If you can actually get 'local fresh' tomatoes, yes absolutely, but the rest of the time (the vast majority of the year, for a start) canned are going to beat the socks off them.

(Also there's canned and there's canned.. it's worth paying for unless you just want red broth.)

We have access to some of the best tomatoes in the world, but adhere to the rule of canned tomatoes only for sauce! The acidity is key.

"whole is better than ground" is a general rule in the food industry

canned whole tomatoes > tomato sauce