Great breakdown! One thing I'd add is that reverse proxies are clutch for handling SSL termination.
Like, if you're running multiple servers, you can offload the encryption/decryption to the reverse proxy (Nginx or HAProxy are solid choices). Saves your backend servers from the extra work.
For regular proxies, I use Privoxy sometimes for ad blocking. But yeah, reverse proxy vs proxy comes down to direction—who's hiding whom?
Like, if you're running multiple servers, you can offload the encryption/decryption to the reverse proxy (Nginx or HAProxy are solid choices). Saves your backend servers from the extra work.
For regular proxies, I use Privoxy sometimes for ad blocking. But yeah, reverse proxy vs proxy comes down to direction—who's hiding whom?