I have no idea on how to see values that are being monitored without creating a graph or screen for it. Is this the only way?
I know the checks (items) use intervals and have history, how could I view that?
You can go to "Monitoring" -> "Latest data". There you can view graphs for any single item and, since Zabbix 2.4.0, you can even view ad-hoc graphs for several items.