Technically, I don't think you can select Jill at the crossroads if you didn't go on the picnic with her. So she won't turn you down to your face.
She'll just mutter some passive-aggressive comments about how things could be different if only you cared about her enough to pick up her slack and notice all the hints she's been hiding from you. 
It really depends on what you want out of the game. The fuck buddy path obviously gives a lot more lewd time with Sage, and it generally has a much better build up of the intimacy between them, particularly with the extended scene of the MC nursing her back to health in Episode 6. But the price for that is that technically you are cheating and (more importantly) it's
really hard to overstate how
*stupid* the Rebound Guy speech is.
The friendship path avoids the cheating and the MC's temporary bout of insanity, which is good. And IMHO the game does a very nice job kindling a platonic friendship between them in Episodes 5 and 6. The downside here is that the platonic friendship is suddenly forced onto the exact same path as the fuck buddy relationship during the HOT party, and it just wasn't quite ready for that yet.
So to sum up: the fuck buddy path has higher overall quality but hits some disastrous lows, whereas the friendship path is more consistent but a bit underwhelming in comparison. Personally I went with the friendship path when I finally replayed the game for my Sage path just prior to Episode 8, but then I'm about as far on the CHICK side as you're likely to find in this thread so YMMV.
I expected DPC to throw us some curveballs, but I figured he'd at least let us get into the batter's box first. We haven't even informed M&J yet and we've already had to sit through the Interlude!
Actually, there is one forced relationship in the game and by a funny coincidence, it's with Zoey in flashbacks.
But to be serious, I agree we're not going to be forced to cheat with Zoey. But while DPC has never forced the (contemporary) MC to pursue a girl, he sure has forced him to stop pursing girls temporarily - most obviously in Episode 4, and the resolution to the Maya/Josy crisis is not exactly the highwater mark of the game. Rather the opposite.
So I think it's entirely fair to worry about just what Zoey is going to do to the narrative.
I'm not sure what you're asking about. If you mean the scene where she confronts Chad about cheating on him (assuming you told her about Troy), AFAICT the game only cares if you're on her path. Even if you waited until Episode 7 to hook up with her (i.e. after Chad dumped her), she'll still say she cheated on him. Whereas if you aren't on her path at all, she'll only say she tried to cheat on him.
I do think the game stores the variables necessary to tell the difference (her Bio entry will say you didn't kiss her during the music lesson, for example). But so far the actual onscreen relationship is the same regardless of how you got there, which is disappointing.
I'm not sure how many people were really calling for more branching, much less how many of those are the ones currently whining about Zoey.
But speaking as someone who DID want more branching and has done more than my fair share of whining about Zoey, I can say that my concern is all about the timing. The point of more branching is to reflect how much of a difference our choices make to the outcome of the game. Adding Zoey into the mix on all branches when the ink hasn't even dried on the new relationships (indeed, it hasn't even been put to paper for M&J) screams of short-circuiting the very branches I wanted to see in action. What difference does my branch make if the MC spends most of his time worrying about Zoey?
I will be very happy to be proven wrong, but the time and effort spent on Zoey in the Interlude (without actually establishing just what she wants from the MC going forward) do nothing but reinforce my fears.
Actually, he doesn't inform Jill if he chooses someone else, either (hence the infamous scene where she sees him fucking Bella). So that's a solid 60% of the LIs the MC can't inform when he 'dumps' them. Great follow through on that crossroads.
I agree it should be an episode or two before the MC is ready to discard his "big decision." Then again, I'd have argued we should wait an episode after the big party in Episode 7 before we got the next one; instead we not only got a bigger party in Episode 8, we're getting the Halloween party in Episode 9. And as I've said too many times, we're stuck catching up on Zoey's background before we've even finished picking a girl. So you'll forgive me if I have less than lively faith in DPC's sense of timing.
