best way to repair netting

You could use glue

Like silicone caulk or polyurethane (McNett seam grip or Shoo Goo)

Either just the glue itself or glue on a piece of netting

If you already have some 3M 77 spray glue, you can spray a very light coat on a netting patch and slap it over your hole. I did that on my Katabatic bivy and so far it's holding up well.

So +1 on glue. The secret is to use as little adhesive as possible for the job. Otherwise you'll have excess glue filling the voids in the mesh.

I certainly have silicone caulk, so I'll try a minimal amount of that with some netting.

Maybe you can fill the hole just using silicone. If it's just 1/4 inch. Won't let air pass through there but so what.

Easiest way :
https://www.mcnett.com/gearaid/bug-mesh-patch#10660

However sewing a patch will of course work.
Slicone is a bit messy but Tenacious tape isn't
(the main reason for posting the kit was to show how it can be done)

which puts less strain on the existing netting – stitching a patch on, or sticking it on, either with tape or silicone?

I'd be less likely to use those commercial patches, but I'm sure they'd be a godsend for some.

stitching may put unequal strain on netting

if you can get glue to stick, that should make uniform stress all the way around. Any raw edges would be prevented from unraveling.

glue might look a little ugly if that was important