Take Newcastle booking now for November with all the cheap fares available. On certain flights I see:
CE for £154.41 which reduces to £1 plus 30,470 avios (80 TP’s awarded and a saucerful of avios).
CE avios ticket is £1 plus 30,000 (0 TP’s but flexibility to cancel)

In ET the fare is £61.41 which reduces to £1 plus 10,990 avios (earning 10 TP’s)
Avios ticket is £1 plus a whopping 18,500 avios, or £35 plus 9,500 avios

Cash fare with avios wins if you collect TP’s and can live without the flexibility, and choose to spend your avios this way, and in ET a cash fare using avios can use fewer avios than an avios ticket.