Is it ever a good idea to NOT grab the trade nodes?

[therother]

Since MTW, I've generally used trade income to fund the navy (ports/upkeep/recruitment), taxes to fund the army (upkeep/buildings/recruitment), with a slush fund for special construction/recruitment (in MTW, that usually became enormous!). That way, if you lose your trade routes, your land forces are largely unaffected if you downsize your navy accordingly. It's not a hard & fast rule: an enclaved vassal is more reliable a trade partner than most, so I'll usually take that into account. Plus there are a lot more land trade routes in this game, as I'm finding out with Uesugi... But yeah, taxes for supporting core armies is definitely the way to go IMO.