"getinfo address" should work more consistently soon after startup
Tor learns its own address, either by using the interface or by reading the http headers in directory responses.
But if your Tor had enough dir info cached when it came back up, it doesn't make any directory requests for a while. And then getinfo address will not have any opinion.
I think the best plan here is to expand the set of things inside Tor that remembers address guesses, to include address guesses we get from netinfo cells.
Wanted by #7348 (closed).