Probably not in Gradius V?Laser > Double (maybe Double isn't a proper spread shot, but it's the same idea).
Double is truly weaker shot because it's only two smaller shots in two directions but that firing delay for laser, ugh. Now, I've also figured out that hammering the fire button with laser puts out faster but much weaker laser bursts, while holding down the button puts out the stronger longer laser but the delay is also a concern.
(Then again, I'm not that good at Gradius V overall, and that unskippable cutscene tends to annoy me each time I play.)
For other games that offer the spread shot, I almost always use the spread shot. This is because a spread shot at point blank range can also be nearly as effective as the direct shot, but the spread shot also give the wide firing range at a distance.
Consider:
Twin Cobra stage 2 boss--red is powerful enough but requires more movement to take out the side green helicopters entering during the boss fight, green drills the boss directly but offers no side protection thus an easy target for the green helicopters, blue requires just small movements to follow the hole in the boss shot pattern and picks off the side green helicopters almost effortlessly, and yellow is both severely weak and offers no diagonal side protection from the green helicopters.
Raiden stage 2 boss--true that the blue laser with homing missiles can take out this boss quickly enough but the red vulcan plus M missiles can take out the boss even faster due to all the concentrated spread shot fire at point blank range. Play it even safer and drop a single bomb just after the last of the flying tiles have gone away after drilling the boss with vulcan and M missiles, and the boss is done and over with. I play Raiden II and III the mostly same way, except for using the R missiles in Raiden III rather than the M missiles.
ThunderForce III and IV--once obtained, the Hunter is the most useful for the popcorn enemies except for in ThunderForce III the Saber drills through bosses and in ThunderForce IV the Blade drills through most bosses quickly enough. Also two examples where, given selectable weapons, there is an appropriate situation for using both the spread shot and the direct shot. Don't use Hunter for those robots with the spinning whip-like objects in ThunderForce IV stage 8, as those items mess up the tracking. Hunter also can't shoot out those small bubble-like blocking items that appear in the later stages of ThunderForce III and IV.
