To develop smart contracts:

it’s good to start with a local in-memory blockchain with unit tests but then deploy to the mainnet as rapidly as possible.

it's good to start with a local in-memory blockchain with unit-tests. Then, in the next step, debug and test the smart contract on a test-net like Ropsten or Rinkeby with beta customers to iron out last issues before deploying it to the main-net.

it's good to start with a test-net with beta-customers like on the Rinkeby or Ropsten testnet, before testing it locally on an in-memory blockchain simulation such as Ganache. Then deploy it to the main-net.