What is the benefit of having an "Inflict X damage to your opponent" spell card that does less damage than others?

Question

I have noticed that there are a number of cards that have the following text (or a variation of it):

Inflict [some amount of] damage to your opponent's Life Points.

Cards that follow this format are:

• Sparks: 200 points
• Raimei: 300 points
• Hinotama: 500 points*
• Final Flame: 600 points
• Ookazi: 800 points

But why would you ever want to choose Sparks or Raimei when Ookazi does the exact same thing, but deals more damage?

This doesn't seem to be a matter of power creep; these cards all seem to have come out at about the same time: 1999 for the Japanese versions, 2002 for the North American versions, and 2004 for the worldwide versions. So all of these cards were available at about the same time, (and Ookazi was in the Kaiba starter deck, so it wasn't hard to find).

When a spell card exists that says "Inflict 800 damage to your opponent's Life Points", why would you ever want to include a card in your deck that says "Inflict 200 damage to your opponent's Life Points"?

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* There is also Goblin Thief that deals 500 points of damage to your opponent and you gain 500 points. I understand why someone might want to choose Goblin Thief over Ookazi, but not why someone would want to choose Hinotama over Goblin Thief.

Answer 1

There is no benefit whatsoever. The only reason why someone would use this sort or not-as-useful card is that there are some decks that mainly focus on damage from spell or trap cards, such as 'Magic Cylinder' These decks basically only contain cards that deal instant damage. It is one of the most quickest way to deplete someone's LP. The benefit is that not many decks are prepared for this type of damage, and since there are only three copies of a single card within a single deck, varieties of a card are necessary.

Answer 2

The only use I can think of, is you can only have 3 copies of each card in the deck. So if you wanted more direct damage cards in your deck, you'd need to use a lower damage version.

I don't play the game, and I only understand the rules superficially, so I might be overlooking some other factor.

Answer 3

As far as the game goes, you can only have a maximum of 3 copies of a card. If you have 3 copies of Ookazi, which deals 800 damage, that would mean it is a maximum of 2400 damage (800x3 copies). A player, be default, has 8000 life points, and thus they're now down to 5600 (8000-2400). To be able to consistently deal damage, you have to have more than one thing that can deal damage, regardless of just how much each individual card can do.