For me, it depends largely on tournament structure and my objective for the tournament. I generally prefer to open up my range a bit at the end of tourneys and especially at the final table for a couple reasons.
Either a) I have a large stack and can afford to open up my range to exploit smaller stacks (i.e., ICM advantage), or b) I have an average-to-small stack and the blinds are getting large, which means that you can't simply wait around for premium
hands that have a decent chance of running out badly against looser players with larger stacks and wider ranges that flop better. No sense getting blinded out waiting for AA just to get a straight or flush run out on you with mid-range cards (e.g., your coveted J10 or J9).
Additionally, the pay jumps can sometimes be meaningless in a tourney until you get to the final table and even the final top three to five players. So to start playing tighter deep in a tourney for which the next pay jump is several players and about equivalent to a min cash, it's up to you whether you want to secure that additional minor cash or give yourself a chance to run it deep to where the
real money is. If I've gotten pretty deep in the first place, I'm content with the fact that I've cashed and I transition into "going for gold" mode. That's not to say I play like an idiot all of a sudden--but I try to play as many decent hands for as cheap as possible to run that stack to the final few players.
Good question and good luck in your upcoming tourneys!
