That's something I asked myself and I personally go with that that he evolves on instinct and that his evolving while living is inferior than becoming immune to the former death cause evolution. If he could evolve into a telepath he would have evolved into a being like the All american boy (kryptonite DD) instead of creating a poisones stinger while fighting Supes.
I would agree that he could evolve a TP defense while being attacked though but not offensive TP.