Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:
The while point of splitting a socket is to control each half separately. For instance, one is always-hot and the other is switched by a light switch. Both sides of the socket should be hot, just maybe not all the time. If the tab was broken before, and you want both sockets to act the same, then OK.. Don't break the tab, but only connect one of the wires on that side. If it doesn't have the action you want, then use the other wire instead. Cap off the unused wire by putting a (smaller) wire-nut on it, then taping the nut to the wire so it doesn't come off. That can be a problem with a single wire on a wire nut. If the tab was broken off before, and you don't break it off now, then...
Full answer by Harper - Reinstate Monica: https://diy.stackexchange.com/a/107750 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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