Tanto blades can penetrate in slicing better because the "corner" of the edge gives you a good point. But this only works as long as the knife is well sharpened. As soon as that little corner gets dull (which will happen faster than a drop point, which spreads the slicing work over a broader area), cuts will get sloppy. It also doesn't work for all materials. Just as some materials will rip if not sliced at a low angle, the tanto corner will be much steeper than a standard edge that hits flat against the slicer material.
Tip strength is completely unrelated. You can turn a tanto into a drop point by rounding off the corner, and the tip of the blade is almost completely unchanged. A Cold Steel Voyager tanto is actually more durable at the tip than a hollow ground drop point because the bevel at the tip of the tanto Voyager is a flat grind, even when the rest of the bevel is hollow, while a drop point might be hollow ground all the way. This is incidental, and you could make a flat-ground drop point just as good.
Penetration when stabbing is also bunk. The very tip of a similar drop point is the same, but the curved edge is more streamligned (or whatever the right word is) versus a tanto with unnecessary steel hanging off of it. And if you have a tanto with a flat-ground tip to make it more durable than a hollow drop point, the tanto may actually be a little WORSE for stabbing, or equal to a flat grind drop point.
The only thing I ever got good use from a tanto for was cutting open taped boxes. It's only good if you want the sharp corner for slicing, and if so it's really handy, but it depends on what you are slicing.
