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Here is the question I have; the following sentence is what is causing me grief. I might be overthinking it but I'm not getting anywhere.
チップの習慣があったほうが、サービスが良くなると思いますか。どうしてですか。
Now, based on my own understanding of this grammar, あったほうが ＝ if you had.
I would translate this sentence as, do you think having a tipping culture results in better service?
Is this a correct translation of this sentence, or am I misunderstanding the question?
Your understanding looks good.
The 「た」 in 「～～た[方]{ほう}が」 expresses a conditional state, not a past event.
It is just like how you say in English "If I had ~~", "If there were ~~", etc. You are not talking about past events when you use these conditionals.
Occasionally, though, you will encounter a situation where a native speaker might use the present tense with 「方が」, but again, that kind of thing would happen in any language.
