Is a tube phono better than ss?

Easy answer: it all depends (on too many things to give a single answer conclusively in general).

Neither has the market cornered on delivering best results case by case. That's why both are still around and have substantial followings. Like Honda and Toyota....

The biggest negative (in my opinion) with a tubed phono stage is the expense and hassle of finding the quiet, high quality tubes that a phono stage generally requires. Even when they start out quiet, they often don't stay quiet. Worked out better for me with a solid state phono stage and getting the sound of tubes from the line stage.

For some, Yes; for others, No.

YEs, getting quiet tubes needed for phono is a real consideration for tube phono.

My ARC sp16 has 3 tubes in phono stage. I learned from ARC when replacing that only one of the three must meet higher tolerance for low noise use in it. I appreciated ARC addressing this when ordering new tubes for me which saved me cost of three versus one very low noise replacement tube. So be aware of this issue for sure if you are into a tube phono in general.