It's not about if storylines could be done in a different way or better or not.... Maya is the first of the central group of MC's friends he meets on campus, she gives you a tour on campus, introduces you to the Jocks, the Diks, the Preps and the HOTs.
Her part in the story is connecting the dots.... This really gives her no special role as being canon LI or whatever...
It's just the character used to connect the main story events, other storylines get hooked into it the further we go into the story.
As for Maya's connection to the Burke scam and the restaurant... Nothing changed in ep 9, Maya still needs tuition, Quinn still wants to expand the restaurant, we see Burke calling a certain Priscilla that most likely is Quinn's given name...
Sure now there's Jill's lawyer that might be Maya's salvation.... But no, that's gonna be a dead end too.... Just like we knew Burke was not going to give her that scholarship this episode...
The game starts with: family is a group of people whether connected by blood or not, that accept you for you and stand by you whatever your choices are.... It's about the story of MC and the people close to him, the ones he fights for and who fight for him.... This group of people are Maya, Josy, Jill, Sage, Bella, but also the DIks.... And Zoey is likely to be one aswell...
It's with these characters we will follow the main storylines.... This game is the story of MC and his friends or "family"...