Why did Gen1 use spaceships?

Originally published at TransformersFans.com. You can comment here or there.

The main argument was always,why have ships when you could transform into one instead?

Accoridng to many an opinion of fans past perhaps could be in gen 1 their objective was to haul energon to replenish cybertron. A big form would have facillitated this but remember each autobot and decepticon cannot haul their own spare parts and perhaps something can be protected in transit that is of value. and it was logical that many autobots and deceptions stay in one place when exploring. logically it is harder to lose one thing especially if you have stuff inside like a bag.
okay someone would say why not they combine into one ship.again we are talking about hauling
things that are needed while being optimised for combat. can't be both that easily.this is another limtaion of not beinga ble to choose your form at will.

To save enery ,repairs,loss, and other equipmnet thatyou cannot fix or is not advisable to haul in combat,The most logical answer. A ship.
Basic in complexity and easy to repair(compared to transformers) and just in case the inevitable happened is expendable ,like a protective covering
rather than wasting your own metal and power, you have this.

These are just some reasons for why gen1 had ships. feel free to argue why it doe snot make sense.