It is all situational. As far as duel meets, its always better to get tech falled than pinned no questions asked.
When is comes to individual tournaments it all depends on who you are facing and how the match went.
1) If you are going up agianst someone who has pinned everyone that gets in their way and tries their best to pin you but you keep fighting, and
fighting to stay off your back and eventually back points add up to a tech fall, then it is not too bad to lose by tech fall.
2) If the guy you are wrestling is toying around with you, taking you down constantly and letting you back up, adn the only reason he is not pinning
you because he needs the mat time or he just likes to show off his skills to the spectators, then that is worse than getting pinned.
3) The worse way you can get defeated, wether it is by tech fall or by pin fall, is if you give up during a match. If you go out their and things aren't goin
your way and you give up, then the guy is going to do to you as he pleases. Even if you are out matched make sure you go out and fight the guy, if he
wants to pin you, then stay off your back, if he wants to tech you, then don't let him continuously take you down.....fight till the end, if you do so then
who cares how bad you lose at least you will walk off the mat knowing you lost because they were the better wrestler, not because you gave up.