I think you should compare this phoenix with the Twilight Phoenix, not with the Fire Phoenix.
Twilight recovers troops up to 5%. It is not really much but helps with waves of troops.
I agree, that it should help in turnamentst and provinces too.
Relict production is completely useless. I have thousands of them too. What to do with them when the production bonus is reached ?
Ok, you ned some for charm production, if you produce some but turnaments bring even more back.
i don't think i would ever feed the twilight phoenix, if it was spire only. i only got me the twilight phoenix because the tournament formula rebalancing was so bad, its easy to loose 10 full troops in a single battle you win. so with even 5% restoration thats still quite some units you recover. In the spire, you don't loose so many troops.
But if im honest, i was hoping the twilight would be worth it, but its not, the effect is too low to compensate the cost of the pet food. Result, instead of improving spire and tournament performance over time, its only decreasing -> turns into a desinterest of tournament/spire -> the game looses all fun aspects.
I'm seeing another wave of players who are quitting the game because of recent developments, and honestly I'm not sure the game can take another wave.
I think this game really need some prize that are worth going for, the prizes we get now, i think are worth it if it took you 5 mins each day. But thats not how it is, you need to invest a huge amount of time in any aspect of the game before you get anything, and its not really worth it.
Its like why bother going to work for a wage of 1000$ if you spend 1200$ on gas every month just to get to work. Sometimes it really feels its better if you don't do a thing.