I have been using Phoenix for a while and didn't have such problems. In fact, I am quite happy with it.

There is something where you are right: since they are charging 1% fee, 3000 sats minimum, they should always open a 300000 sats channel at least.

If you use the Android version, you can disable automatic channel creation.

Lastly, custodial wallets maybe could offer the chance to open a self-custody channel upon reaching a certain balance. That would bring the best of both approaches.