Of course, I can, but I like to use the lore. Also, it provides me a description of the dragon, a little bit of backstory on how it may have been snagged by Verjigorm and so on... Even if the dragon is basically hanging in a bag, dead, during the game, this kind of details brings a lot to the table (btw, that is why most TV shows / Movie have "bible" document FAR more than what is shown in the story).
It also means that if my players decides to investigate who this dragon was, I don't need to come up with anything else. Like for instance, reading the available material (for Earthdawn) for Aban will give me the relationship to other dragons (like Ghostwalker).
Also, as the IP of Earthdawn and Shadowrun have been split, there is very few chances for any of the "forgotten" dragons of Earthdawn to ever appear again in the lore (well, at least, not under their Earthdawn name).