I agree with so much of what you said, I especially agree that Teal and Phoenix make a better pair but I also got more attached to Joyce. It's probably because we get the choices early on to choose to be a part of the testing program and therefore have Joyce in our story and it feels more mandatory to do so. Whereas, Phoenix feels more like an optional part of the story, even though regardless of if you choose to hang out with Phoenix all the time or not at all, Phoenix is still always in some way a part of the story. I actually really liked that part since I never felt like I was excluding a character from the story if I wasn't interacting with them as much.