I did a bfr in one, and we did stalls and I don't remember it having any unusual stall characteristics, other than it was hard to get it to do a power on stall so we used partial power so we wouldn't need to have a crazy high angle of attack. I didn't do much flying myself, but the owner let me do a touch and go and it seemed like it would be easy to get used to the feel of the plane.
I think it would be a good cross country time builder - cheap, but faster than a 152, better avionics than you will find in most other 'cheap' rentals. I assume if you are time building for commercial or something you are going to be doing mostly cross country flying, and the spin issue shouldn't deter you from doing that. With that kind of flying you should be nowhere near stalling the aircraft, let alone spinning it. I'd say do some cross country flying, try to get some actual IMC time if the fbo/school will let you.
On the issue of spins, for certification all single engine aircraft must have a test pilot demonstrate that they can recover from a spin in them. I would never intentionally spin a plane that is not certified for it, and I'm not suggesting that anyone does, but if you inadvertently get it into a spin you should be able to recover if you have enough altitude. I had been told never to spin a Piper (like archer, arrow, saratoga, etc) because they are 'impossible' to recover from a spin in. But I've met people who got into spins both accidentally and intentionally in those planes that are still here to talk about it.