This is the behaviour I'm looking for,
Link to page "name-of-the-page" should,
Until recently, I was using the following link format, and it was providing me the above behaviour.
If the page 'name-of-the-page' did not exist, it would take me to the UI to create a new page with that name. And if I published the page when I clicked the link the very first time, then on the second time I clicked, it would take me to the page I had created.
This link doesn't seem to be working anymore. Currently the above link always takes me to a "Create new page" screen, even when the page exists. And obviously doesn't let me publish again because a page with that name already exists, under the same parent.