When does LPT become an important factor for a spinning reel and what range should you look for best all-around reel? best crank bait, jerk bait? top water? soft plastics? swim baits?

I have actually never once taken into consideration IPT on my spinning reels.

Spinning reel gear ratios tend to have a different ipt than a casting reel in the same ratio due to spool size.

The 15 Luvias 2506h has a gear ratio of 5:6 and an ipt of 33" 'spinning'

A tdz 103ml has a gear ratio of 5:7 and an ipt of 22"  'casting'

2 reels with almost identical ratios and almost 12" difference in ipt.

My spinning reel is a 4:8 ratio and the ipt is 28"

Dont overthinking it that much. It'll work just fine. 

I was just wondering if there were 2 different reels that were similar in size and gear ratio but one had significantly more IPT if i'd be wiser buying the one with the highest IPT or not.

A spool with a larger diameter will pick up more line per turn than one with a smaller diameter even if the gear ratios are the same. Now that higher speed baitcasters are a "big" thing, you will be seeing a lot more of that filtering down to spinning reels. Quantum is already advertising higher speed spinning reels in their Smoke series. It was never really an issue before, but it is a good marketing tactic for reel makers so look for a lot more spinning reels to be advertised as "high speed".

50 minutes ago, flyfisher said:

I have actually never once taken into consideration IPT on my spinning reels.

IPT was actually a deciding factor for getting a few 2500/3000 CI4 reels.  Can't tell you how many times a smallie rockets to the surface while I'm left reeling up 30+ feet of line to catch up.  Those 4 or so extra inches do make a difference, sometimes.

I use the CI4 2500 myself so maybe that is why it hasn't been a factor for me lol  

Just now, J Francho said:

IPT was actually a deciding factor for getting a few 2500/3000 CI4 reels.  Can't tell you how many times a smallie rockets to the surface while I'm left reeling up 30+ feet of line to catch up.  Those 4 or so extra inches do make a difference, sometimes.

 

38 minutes ago, J Francho said:

IPT was actually a deciding factor for getting a few 2500/3000 CI4 reels.  Can't tell you how many times a smallie rockets to the surface while I'm left reeling up 30+ feet of line to catch up.  Those 4 or so extra inches do make a difference, sometimes.

exactly! for any techniques not involving constant winding (e.g., crankbaits, spinnerbaits), i want the highest IPT i can get. when hooking a smallmouth while dropshotting deep, they zoom to the surface faster than i can wind to catch up and sometimes spotted bass will do that too. but, if i'm swimming a grub or a spinner, i like slower IPT.