"I think money is better spent on education and infrastructure, [..]"
The problem that we are discussing here is, precisely, how to give education and infrastructure efficiently to people that live in some of the poorest places of earth.
As an example: Givedirectly[1] have a program that give direct transfer cash to the poorest people in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. They make research about how effective this is and you get some reports back about what people do with the money.
Do you know in what they spend the money? education and infrastructure.
The common themes are: paying the school bills so their children can keep going to school, a cow or seeds so they can start a small business, and (the one I never could predict from my urban European perspective) a metallic roof so water don't come into their house when it rains.
Even if some people could misuse the chance, and that's unavoidable, humans being so diverse, the important thing is the efficiency of the program in its totality.
This theory that poor people just would stay at home drinking the money can be tested. In most cases, the theory has been falsified.
[1] - https://www.givedirectly.org/research-on-cash-transfers/