Generally speaking I understand the OSM preference, is to tag as a building (closed way) rather than a single node, if the entity occupies the entire building. Obvious exceptions are shopping malls, and businesses situated in “terraced buildings” where to draw each one, is not only difficult, but very time consuming.
From a personal standpoint, I do uprate most petrol stations nodes, to building=roof as they show up on my GPS, and therefore negate the need for me to add them as I fly past at some silly speed on the bike
I also might draw some of the larger/important buildings in a poorly mapped city, this way. This helps you get your bearings on a rendered map.
I realise that some Wats & Schools are mapped in a very haphazard way here, with some drawn as areas, (with or without buildings), and some as just nodes. I might convert the main temple from a node to a building, and give it a name, but I feel it is wrong to then copy that name=* & place_of_worship=* tag to every other building on the site. This just clutters the map and makes waypoint selection difficult. The same would typically apply to school buildings.
I certainly agree with Paul’s comment about the “one feature, one OSM element” principle applying, and its infuriating when I see people add an amenity=fuel tag, slam in the middle of a PTT gas station canopy I have drawn, simply because they either don’t realise the fuel tag is already incorporated in the building … or they are part of the Maps.Me brigade !
To answer Paul, in the same vein as above, I would probably draw the main station/terminal building, and add all the name=* and other informative tags to that alone. I tend to map from a “navigation standpoint”, which is to say, if I wanted to be directed to a certain point, where would OSM put me ?
So for a school/terminal/Wat etc, the main building is where you want to be taken to, and not some geometrically placed node in the middle of an area.
Russ.