...Wouldn't it make more sense to just catch a Spearow

I typically never catch evolved forms unless it's a situation where I legitimately didn't realize "X evolves into Y"

Admittedly it was the first gen, it didn't occour to me that Metapod was a cocoon for Caterpie until I heard about someone who had a Metapod that knew Tackle and Stringshot....

Still it is a mistake I sometimes make, recently caught a Floette in Violet, not realizing it evolves from Flabebe