I’ve evolved so low-level mons only to discover the evolution in the wild at a later time. How can I know if I NEED to evolve vs just have patience and find one in the wild?
There’s no offical list of what can be caught already as it’s evolved form(s).
There’s XP gains by evolving over catching. Almost everything that can be caught can have it evolved form spawn in the wild.
The usual exception is new releases. They often wait for a re-appearance before the evolutions can be caught.
Some are held back from wild spawns/catches as they wild be in Raids instead.