Do even basic awful sketches help people more when modeling without any team members? My sketches aren't usually very good and the amount of time it would take for me to make a good sketch would be very long. So far I've made a sketch once for modeling armor as I had no clue what I was doing.

Yes even badly drawn concept helps, it gives you a better idea of what you are doing and helps you get started.

Any thing that makes you feel like you are making progress is a good thing. Also switching from modeling to drawing is a nice change of pace.

Bad drawings help the most in decorative designs, patterns and other details only need a rough shape.

Here is one of my own rejected concepts for the model I am making.

This design was to messy and over powered the design, this drawing only took a minute to make and scrap, just think how bad it would have been if I modeled it only to realize it was a bad design.

Most 3D modelers won't share there concept with clients, because a lot of it is this bad.