Knight is rarely a better choice indeed, and it might even be optimal to choose a rook or bishop in extraordinary circumstances, such as if choosing a queen leads to a draw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_of_chess#History

A pawn originally did not have the option of moving two squares on its first move, and promoted only to a queen upon reaching the eighth rank. The queen was originally the fers or farzin, which could move one square diagonally in any direction.

In the Persian and Arabic game the bishop was a pīl (Persian) or fīl (Arabic) (meaning "elephant") which moved two squares diagonally with jump