MHY: Your exceptions prove the rule. Sorry you are unfamiliar with minhagei eretz yisrael. They are esentially minhagei Hagra, brought here by the famous “prushim” clan, and these minhagim have been accepted throughout Israel, with some exceptions.In Yerushalayim , they are accepted almost uniformly. The Tukotchinsky Luach for minhagim of the davening is a reflection of this and it is accepted by almost all. True, here and there, as your friend noted, there is a minyan that puts on tefillin. To each his own. But there are thousands of minyanim that don’t, and many of them do not hesitate to unceremoniously throw anyone out that dares put them on, even in the corner or in another room. I have seen this myself.
Rav Schach’s custom, and certainly the Erlauer Rebbe indicate that the general custom is not to put on tefillin. None of the yeshivas, including Rav Schach’s yeshiva, adopted his minhag.None of the chassidim here do either except the relatively small numbered Erlauer. That in itself proves the aberration here;everyone knows that the overwhelming minhag amongst chassidim is not to wear tefillin chol hamoed.