According to what i read, the most “primative” green plants propagated themselves via spores. Later, plants eveolved that produced seeds. These plants are said to be modern, in the sense that they produce a complete embryonic plant, within a hard case (a seed).
I have ferns in my garden, which produce spores…and they seem to do just fine. Are seeds all that better in propagating plants?
That should pretty much answer your question.
Seeds and spores are simply different methods of accomplishing the same thing: making little plants. What works for one plant, or in one environment, does not necessarily work for (or in) another, so seeds are what works for the plants that have them, and spores are what works for the plants that have those.
Your question is sorta like asking are WINGS better than arms. Yes, birds wings evolved from the upper limbs of vertebrates but that doesn’t make them better. It would be mighty hard typing on this here keyboard if I had to deal with wings.
Seeds are superior baby protectors, but they are costly. You not only have to spend energy generating a nice insulated structure stocked with food, but you find a way to push that thing (dispersal). That requires making attractive or aerodynamic fruits (angiosperms) and cones (conifers) . Plants have budgets just like the rest of us, and these things require lots of $$$.
But if you’re a spore-former? All you need is a nice breeze or water flow, and you’re set. You can use your energy to make more babies. And if you’re in the Tropics where it’s moist and warm, you can grow to tree size just like the seed-producers. (You gotta check out the arborescent ferns. They are amazing.)
Spore-formers (your mosses, ferns, hornworts, and horsetails) are “primitive” the same way that fish are “primitive” relative to reptiles. Are fins inferior to limbs even though they preceded them evolutionarily? Nope. Just different.
Generally spores produce the simpler plants.
The more complex plants produce seeds containing more genetic information, a protective outer shell and usually some nutrient material to get the new plant off to a good start.
I generally think that nature makes a good testbed, and both systems seem to be effective.
Re: the “spores represent simpler plant structure”… well, yes. On the other hand, simpler plant (and animal and computer code) structure tends to survive better than complex ones. The most simple bacteria and virii outpopulate the complex humans on astronomic scales. Complex != superior.
I don’t think one is “superior” to the other. They are different approaches to the same task, with different conditions (simplicity vs. complexity, for instance). It certainly seems to be the case that both systems “work” in nature.