Thinner is less waste since it’s not apparent how deep an inlay is. A balance of it breaking and hassle of machining it I guess?
Anyone have a rule of thumb for the thickness of your positive inlay stock? 1/2"? 3/8"? 3/4"?
You have to factor in the thickness margin to be able to have the male inlay stick out from the female inlay surface after glueing, to then be able to surface everything. Some folks use a scroll saw to cut the extra thickness of the male inlay, so that requires even more thickness to being with.
Also, for wood inlays it’s hard to get precise male parts with no chipping/breaking if you are going for very thin material. The thinnest I like to go is 3-4mm, as in this example where I milled ~4mm walnut inlays
And then of course there is the matter the robustness of the finished piece as you mentioned, the deeper you go the wider the glued surface is, so for stuff that is not purely decorative it can matter (e.g. a serving tray)
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