Boy, I can not believe the amount of disinformation there is about .tiffs! Basically, a .tiff file is an uncompressed jpeg. Similar to a jpeg, it let's the camera set the contrast, white balance, etc., etc. for your picture (which you have pre-set in the camera for the situation you are photographing). If you're using a camera specific software when processing raw files, it probably has no different quality after processing than if you could have made the same settings in the camera and saved as a .tiff.
There are camera models such as the Nikon D300s, that allow you to shoot native .tiff in the camera. If you can set the camera to make an excellent photo, much like a photographer in the past shooting a transparency, then by all means shoot it as .tiff! Camera RAW, does have all the information saved, and then you can go in and modify that, so you can set contrast, density, color, etc., then save as a .tiff for the highest quality file to send to ad agencies or printers. BUT, if you can set that in the camera, and would have been happy with a jpeg version, all the .tiff file is, is an uncompressed version of that.
In addition, .tiff is a loss-less file format. If you shoot .tiff and need to get in and change the color a little, or density, or contrast, no problem, you can resave it with no loss. If you need to get in and change it a lot, RAW is better, but maybe you shouldn't be a photographer if you're than far off!