While this line is funny this is already one of the main problems with Josy - she is a prepackaged LI that your MC already has an emotional attachment to. You start the game being told how much you like her and how interested in her you are. However you don't actually get to see any of the initial meeting or the getting to know you scenes that would make you have an interest. For all the other characters in the game you get to see all the relationship building moments. Josy's character suffers greatly in comparison. Zoey would likely lead to a similarly problematic situation where the MC is attached to her, reacting accordingly emotionally and the player is sitting there saying uh why? Would hope that Zoey is left out of it beyond the one flashback scene.
Oh I agree. Just to clarify again I didn’t bring all this up because I thought it was likely or even a good idea. Just highlighting a way she could be included in the story and what purpose she could serve. This wasn’t a desired or informed theory just a way she could serve the story after someone said they couldn’t see anyway or reason for her to come back.
Still, she could be the Ana of the story. She only existed in AL to drive other peoples plot forward. To create drama and ultimately be a fallback LI for an ending. Ana was a bad character for all the reasons you listed and more but she served a purpose plotwise which is why I brought all this up about Zoey.
In an ideal world DPC would have bespoke scene for any and all situations but as Ep5 shows he is trying to consolidate the storyline. Zooey as a character wouldn’t be best served introduced now for reasons you said but she’d service as a plot device in my opinion.