Some statistical divulgement that I think may be of relevant interest:
Ultra Balls are twice the cost of Great Balls for a 1.5× higher capture rate.
Great Balls are thrice the cost of Poké Balls for a 1.5× higher capture rate.
Ultra Balls are hexakis the cost of Poké Balls for a 2.0× higher capture rate.
Ergo, in terms of cost-efficiency, Poké Balls are superior to higher grades of standard Ball. Probably not ultimately more time-efficient, though.
I'm afraid cost-efficiency might not apply to Poké Balls. You could waste 10 Poké Balls on a Pokémon and have all of them fail, and then catch it with a single Ultra Ball. 10 Poké Balls cost $2000, and one Ultra Ball is $1200. They're more cost-effective only when catching very weak Pokémon like Caterpie. If you're going to catch something like Larvitar, Ultra Balls might be more cost-effective.
Anyway, I was forced to test this today because I wanted to catch a Murkrow in Diamond. Murkrow is a Pokémon with pretty low catch rate, so I wasn't expecting regular Poké Balls to work, but I tried anyway. I used 10 Poké Balls, and all of them failed. Then I used one Great Ball, and it failed as well. Finally, I used a Dusk Ball (it was at night), and I caught it. The better Poké Ball had the best performance, as expected.
Hopefully it puts this thread to rest.