Thanks for playing, you had a great run in the video!
Since the game revolves so much around speed and score I hadn't really put much thought into safe spots since you're doing a disservice to yourself in the long run (you even loose the score bonus if you let a boss sit for too long), but since that seems to be a common strategy so far I'll try to counter that for later levels (level 3's already shaping up for this). The spread's got two main uses, reletively safe and reliable damage from a distance and huge close up damage that even out damages the laser, however that doesn't seem immediately communicated since the ladder is a high level technique.
A boss rush was planned for the final, with maybe even some extras in there if all goes to plan.