Apologies for the overlapping tiles.
After experimenting with the various approaches, it appears to me that trimming instances of tiles components with the Solid Tools Trim tool may be the quickest method overall. My thinking has evolved over this thread and I now see the value of having solid tiles. For one, they look much better, and they save space.
Now that I know the Trim tool makes trimmed components unique, saving what I thought was an extra step,I find it relatively easy to step through and trim each tile. Zorro2 is a great tool and will very quickly trim groups of tile components, making each one unique as it does so, but it leaves the trimmed edges without a face. This is fine in many cases, but when you want a face, it takes time to edit each component to replace it. That said, there's a place for each method.