Never prime a sata in hopes of skillchaining at the start of a fight. It's better to have cold timers by the time the fight starts so that you can gain tp instead of standing there disengaged. Plus it's dangerous. "If you're good" usually ends up being "If the server likes you." If it doesn't like you that particular second, you prematurely blow your sata.
In a ninja party, priming does the party more harm than good. The problem ninjas encounter isn't keeping hate during the first 15 seconds of the fight. It's keeping it in the face of barrage and a weaponskill, or a magic burst. Thus, the ninja doesn't need a primed trick attack. They need hate when hate spikes happen, and that means giving the tank all you have right before the magic burst. Again, when TAWS isn't enough and it goes for the BLM because they firaga'd for 1200, you didn't do your job. TAWS does not come close to doing the same damage that SATAWS does, even if both equipment sets are extraordinary.
Once you plant a TA onto a ninja, it's over. The meleeing partner has no chance to turn the mob, and thus you perpetuate the suboptimal by priming trick attack. Ta + a later TAWS < SATAWS in terms of hate control, because SATAWS transfers hate exactly when hate is needed. NO shadow depletion. No damage depletion. It's incredibly easy to rip a mob off a ninja with a provoke and a weaponskill. That's the beauty of the nin-thief relationship. If your skillchain is taking your mob from 90% to 5%, you're probably fighting too low. Ideally you should skillchain at the start of fights, use only one Sa and Ta per fight, and exit the fight with around 80% tp. Thus, the best thieves working with the best parties don't whore their Sa and Ta. It stays cold and ready for the skillchain only, and the party doesn't need any priming to help it along.
The thief who primes on the pull almost invariably gets waited on sooner or later, because their TA timer is too hot to skillchain. You should NEVER be unable to skillchain when both partners have 100 tp. Ever. That 150-300 extra damage at the start of the fight is not worth waiting 30 seconds for TA to cool down in order to skillchain. And it happens. I know it does, because I used to do it and it is unavoidable. A thief has to know when to put their abilities on the shelf and save them, even if it initially makes sense to try your best to use downtime to your advantage.
When at all possible, attempt to SATAWS the tank while at the same time letting the tank provoke on the incoming pull. That is, try your best to create that 2 second window about 10 seconds into a fight where the tank isn't tanking, and exploit that window. That has always been and will continue to be the best scenario for a thief-proficient party.
In short, how does a great thief use assassin? Well ideally, they don't. Suboptimally all these techniques probably work well enough though.
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