Hydras x Hatchlings

[Makinus]

First keep in mind that i play only CBM, so i don´t know if these will apply to the stock game:

I´m finding that, at leas in the early game, when playing LA Pythium, recruiting Hydra Hatchlings is more cost effective than buying full hydras, what do you think?

For the price of a single Hydra i can buy 10 hatchlings, the only disvantage is the use of a sacred slot, but this is not so much a disvantage with dom 8 or 9 and the additional resource cost is irrelevant.

While the hatchlings don´t last as long as a hydra in battle, their cheap price allows easy massing of them and, most important, they too have poison clouds.

Of course the hydra lasts longer in the middle game, but at the middle game you should not be dependend on hydras for conquest. Exclusively as an early-game tactic, what would you rate the recruitment of hatchlings instead of full hydras?