Some responses seemed to migrate to the more general topic of "how to poop in the woods", and I expect most of us are familiar with the various approaches in differing conditions.

In the context of burying tp or not, the only reply on this topic seems to be "if marmots are about they will dig it up". Interesting; I wonder what's in it for the marmot?

While of course I've seen marmots on trail, they're actually pretty rare overall, mostly in pretty rocky areas. Barring unexpected need, I don't "go" (#2) in such places.

I'm really not meaning to be argumentative here, I just have found too many other cases where received wisdom is just --- wrong, or at least simplistic. It might indeed be best in beginning backpacking classes to suggest to folks that they should carry out their TP; that's a different discussion. In terms of what's ethical/reasonable for me to do on a case-by-case basis, however --- in marmot-free backcountry, I still don't see a reason not to just bury it deep.

I've changed my process before, and am certainly open to doing so again, but not just because there's a general and perhaps vague consensus that "it's the right thing to do". FWIW, I don't recall ever seeing a dug-up cathole. I've certainly seen toilet paper strewn along the trail, but my sense in those cases was not that it had been dug up, but rather just left out by thoughtless hairless apes (species homo sapiens but not demonstrably human). It's possible that I misinterpreted what I was seeing. But my own used TP wouldn't look like that, the same sort of "strewn about" look if dug up; I'm sure of that.

I imagine that places where goats abound could be another special case. Certainly they go nuts trying to get the salt out of urine, and they definitely can dig, so they might be an issue with catholes. Interestingly enough, I don't recall any special warnings from rangers when going into one area (The Enchantments in WA state) where goat encounters are guaranteed. They warned us about the urine thing, but said nothing about #2, so in fact, maybe that's not a problem with goats after all.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around marmots digging up catholes. They're not particularly stupid animals; I really don't see the point from the marmots perspective! :-)