Some airplanes are better than others, but IMO the 145 sucked in speed mode. Crossing 10 I'd do just as you said, though IDR if it was 500 or 1000(been a few years) then I'd adjust the VS to continue a climb at roughly 290. Even if i got it on speed in the climb I would very rarely put it into speed mode because it was testy and would make, imo, too large of pitch changes for a negligible amount of speed. Rarely some CA's would fly it in pitch mode and move the rocker, I was never a fan of this technique, but I'm sure plenty of them preferred their technique to mine. I do/did what the FOM said, so absent a specific mode I did what I felt best to accomplish the goal.
On the light twin, I put it into VNAV and let it do all the work for me. As
@ATN_Pilot said it's supposed to be the best for the fuel, my company tells me to do this and so long as the checks keep clearing I'll continue to fly their jet the way they tell me to. Maybe some of the pitch changes are a bit too large at times but it isn't
that bad, and I haven't heard a single box complain yet.