We have about 100 acres mostly wooded land (it was tobacco farm than many years turned to pine tree farm). I mainly want equipment for construction projects ands also shaping land (for the projects or maintaining trails). I started with L3301 with backhoe and IMO that is the smallest tractor I’d want. It ended up being too small for the stuff I wanted to do so sold it and got an L47. The L3301 would get the job done, but slowly…the L47 is just so much faster and easier doing the same things. People always say small tractors can do work of bigger equipment, but take longer doing it. As a newbie, you don’t fully understand what that means because you're just thinking "I just need a tool that can get the job done and I don't care if it takes longer." Once you get experience and sit in the tractor some days, you realize you want to go faster and will want bigger. Sure an L series can move a round bale, but slowly and carefully in less than ideal conditions...an MX just grabs it and runs. To get an idea of what working slow versus speed, see how a 100 HP skid steer tosses dirt around like it's snow versus a BX tractor struggling with it.
In tractor world, bigger and heavier is better for everything basically (power, comfort, stability, speed, safety)...up to the point of course where obviously an MX tractor is out of place in a suburb. All large tractors will have to be driven like tractors meaning lots of forward and reverse turning...steering radius of 8,9,10, or 12 feet is a wash as they're all as large or larger than a car and turn like one (ain't no zero turn or small garden tractor maneuverability). Yes if you're in a 1-3 acre lot, the tighter turning BX is at home and capable of projects there. Sure the BX can still work on 20-30 acres, but it's going to be really slow at getting any decent work done. Many people who have tractors also have full time jobs and don't have all day to do projects slowly.
End of the day, it's a question of cost. Normally 2x bigger is 2x the cost and then it's about how much are you will to spend to get work done faster. In some situations where you got ~30 acres of pasture to mow, it's just not unreasonable to cut it with a 60 inch bush hog as by the time you finish, you'll have to mow again where you initially started. In reality it's a grey area though of 'how slow can you tolerate.' I think people probably think it will take less time than it really does to get jobs done.
After some practice, it takes 20-30 min to change over from backhoe to 3 point or visa versa. This is a considerable time in a realistic work day of 6 hours. Still for many people they rather put up with that than the cost of multiple pieces of equipment. If you own land, there are many reasons you want a tractor with PTO, but not so much a mini-ex or skid steer as they would sit idle a lot.
IMO, aside from specific applications and unless you got a skid steer alongside the mini-ex, a TLB is faster than a mini-ex getting general work done. Similar weight mini-ex and TLB has similar digging force, but the TLB has less reach and swing radius. The TLB is so much faster and stable to move around to get into position also not tearing up turf. It can clean up the mess made so much faster and cleaner. Then you can till your garden or mow your field with it. Mini-ex is really slow and single purpose...I think of it more of like crane.
In summary, I'd say get a grand L or MX with backhoe. You can probably also get by with L series, but it will be too slow. L47 (70k) is only a bit more than MX. With the TLB series, you get better backhoe/construction tool versus farm tool (PTO HP on the ag tractors). M62 has everything including PTO HP, but the thing is giant and expensive (~85k reasonable price)...it's not too popular so you want find hardly any around as at this size and price, many people rather get a full size JCB, deere, or cat TLB.
