Phoenix was worth it

Not to mention the whip the pigs in the rancor raid

Problem is that while they are undoubtably "good" there's just toons that are "better" by themselves even. The requirement to farm the whole team means that toons like nihilus and R2 stand out for being equivalent power and threat with only being 1 character. And you can stick them in any squad and have them be just as good. While Phoenix has good skills and team power they just don't stack up to triple cleanse and sith squads. And while they do good damage in raids there are now 3 different squads that can do the entirety of a heroic rancor on auto in 10 mins. They're good. But other teams are better and take far less resource and farming investment

Comparing them to teams with Zeta's isn't really fair. They can hold their own against non zeta teams, which means they do have potential, and could be much improved in the future, depending on what the zeta's do.

Of course it's fair to compare them, zetas exist to bring old toons back to a competitive level and on new ones to make them hard to reach full power potential. Phoenix will not ever be getting a zeta unless they do another faction rework in a year or 2 and that's highly unlikely. Phoenix have a place but unfortunately that place is helping newer players 3 star light side battles, not arena and not raids. You can still use them in these and do well don't get me wrong. It's just they have hard counters and better squads to compete with to earn their place. Some members are great on the right team. I got destroyed by Ezra on a qui gon zeta squad. But as a full group they are lacking some key things to make them competitive in the meta

Of course I disagree with your opinion of comparing unfinished characters to finished ones. Eventhough I don't care for them, and don't have a desire to farm them further than the 5* that I have. I'm still assuming we'll see zeta's on them sooner than later, as they are probably more underwhelming than the developers desired them to be.

I respect your opinion sir but where we differ most is the concept that a toon with a zeta is more "finished" than a toon without. I would argue that General Kenobi is a much better toon than luminara. Luminara has a zeta, kenobi does not. Zetas were designed to bring older characters back to use, now they seem to be a way of locking new ones behind at least some form of paywall. In either case zeta vs no zeta is not a good indication of overall toon usefulness. Fulcrum Ashoka dosent have a zeta, Assaj Ventress does. Whom would you rather have on your team?

They are never going to replace my favorites and that is a all sith team but 5 staring them was not a waste is my point but I agree there are much better teams

Fulcrum Ashoka does have a zeta... I'm saying you have more potential if you don't have one yet, than if you do. Once all abilities are maxed, it's hard to improve, unless new abilities are added.

when the ships are farmable, you will appreciate them.

Can a PS team 3 star 9b and 9c LS hard nodes?