[alufers]

I am no TOR expert, but how does decreasing the amount of hops or running your own relay decrease the privacy of other people?

[PeterisP]

Running large requests over many hops takes up limited Tor resources so it makes using Tor slower/harder for other people. Decreasing the amount of hops means that you use less resources, running your own relay means that you provide resources to others.

[pests]

I don't think the other reply you got answered your question.

The thought is that other people are hiding in your noise. Make less noise, other people stand out more.