What's the consensus on lens hoods, do you use them or not and why?

Always.

Hard lens hoods, not the rubber ones.

1)  More physical protection for the front lens element (personally, I don't use "protective" filters)

2)  Reduces flare (affecting contrast and sharpness, etc)

I even use them in the studio, both for protection and to help with any stray light coming from rear strip softboxes, etc (even though they are equipped with grids)

I use them in studio and on location.

If you can see the reflection of any light source on your lens front element, the lens will have some flare and contrast will be affected.  How much depends on direction and intensity , lens construction and how clean the front element is.  Lens hoods allow you to reduce the chance of that happening.

I’m not above using one hand to augment the hood to shade a lens further when outside and working with a wide angle lens.

The lens hood is a useful tool.
It isn't always needed or wanted.
Yes, I do use them when it makes a better image to do so.

In some situations glare and flare are part of the image I am creating.
In other situations I don't want stray light bouncing off the front element.
And there are situations where it is not required and will not make any difference.

My Tamron 90mm macro has a deeply set front element and may not need the hood depending on lighting.
Wide angle lenses nearly always need a hood and as mentioned above, a hand or a panel preventing glare and flare.

Yes, primarily outdoors, but occasionally indoors. Why? Because they do the job reducing/eliminating flare, plus cameras with lens hoods on them are always cooler looking than those with out!

The few times I do not use a lens hood are inside an underwater case, or when I have a variable neutral or circular polarizer filter on the lens. I think one of my macro lenses did not come with a lens hood, but I use a wide rubber hood for it since I often use it against glass.

Otherwise, inside or out, I have the lens hood on.

They can make a big difference to the image by reducing flare from off- axis light sources such as room lighting, so I always use one.