I dunno what "normal" should be, but common, certainly. It's akin to what I said here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/why-audiophools-love-lt10838485/msg2917066/#msg2917066Yes we all (more or less, and often depends on the category of part in question for each of us) tend to do that.
And when it comes to MCUs, the benefit of reusing a part that you have used before, that did the trick and that you know well are obvious. You don't need to read a brand new datasheet to know how to integrate it properly hardware-wise, and you don't need to install/learn new development tools, register lists and libraries, and can reuse a lot of code you already wrote.
The benefits for simpler parts are often less obvious.
Oh and interestingly, the relationship engineers have with saving time is a complex one, and largely depends on your work conditions.
Some like to save time because that's just part of our natural laziness (which can be a good thing here!), others don't because that's less opportunity to learn new things.
Likewise, some like to save time because they know how time is valuable (either because they just deeply know it, or because they run their own business!), others absolutely don't care about saving time, especially when they are just employed and are paid not by the tasks they achieve but just by passing time.