If you don't get the RC, You will be very limited to distance (less than 100m / 300 ft in any case) and it will be very scary to fly (my experience and many others).
At the end there are 2 key factors:
- If you have no drone and you really think in 1 year you will still fly it, buy a Mavric.
- The price of the Mavric is not a problem, of coarse it is more expensive.
Spark is nice because it look small (when ready to fly) and it is new/fun.
The performances are good but not great, a Spark without RC is almost nothing where even the cheaper Mavric package is already good.
You have to define your criteria. I will go to vacation soon and it was hard to found one but I got a Spark. There will be a Phantom 3 as drone and the Spark will come as a secondary drone, mainly because it is smaller, it is strong and I can delegate its operation to one of my daughters. I would never go to vacation with just the Spark. It would be Phantom or both. But the phantom with all accessories etc... is a nice luggage where the Spark is a shoulder bag, so there are more opportunity to take it.
In your case, if I would be you (let's say money is not the issue), I would never buy a Spark without RC and I would go for the Spark. If money is an issue, I would not buy a Spark without RC, you will have bad vacation and it is not good at all.