shandj, granting 'select any table' to all developers will greatly compromise security if you or your organisations have 'secure' tables, ie. database tables you don't want everyone to see. If you don't have that problem of security, go ahead. But also think of the future/ future DBAs in your organisation.
The very concept of privileges in Oracle is to provide 'granular' security, ie provide only those privileges which are absolutely essential for the user.
Hence, in this case, 'select catalog role' or 'select any dictionary' is the right choice.