Interesting. I usually backorder around 500-700 domains each month with the various dropcatchers, and all of these are also backordered with Pheenix, as either full price or discount backorders (majority are full price backorders). Their current catch rate for me is only about 3-5%, and that’s actually a marked improvement compared with a few months ago (before they added a bunch more registrars to their arsenal), so they still seem to be underperforming compared with how many registrars they now have.
Pretty much everything they catch for me go to public auctions, so the outcome is no different than if dropcatch.com get them.
If Pheenix gets stronger/more competitive, it's not going to benefit domainers at all IMO, now that they do public auctions. A domain that gets caught by Pheenix and goes to a public auction is generally going to sell for a lot more than one that gets caught by SnapNames and goes to a closed private auction. A weak Pheenix and a less competitive Dropcatch, with a stronger SnapNames/NameJet would be the ultimate scenario for domain investors, as final sales prices are much lower in private auctions (the people who win auctions at Pheenix and Dropcatch would often not have been participating in the auction at all had the domain gone to a private auction). Just my view on it. Not rooting for Pheenix to become more competitive, as it's pretty much just the same as Dropcatch becoming more competitive...