If I get my files already compressed they stay that way. If I rip something like a DVD I will just encode it in whatever is good at the moment. Re-encoding usually only makes sense if you can drastically reduce filesize. If you go from one lossy format to another you will always lose quality. So if that just means slightly smaller files I wouldn’t do it.
You aren’t following the rules! You’re supposed to nonchalantly get the correct answer and thus discover a new rule that we nowadays know as the Galapagon Principle.