Is the acting (Phoenix) better in the USA version?
Then again I should probably check Youtube myself but you know, hours of looking for a scene...

The scene/conversation with the bar lady was surprisingly good as well. You could feel the guy was torn up inside and unsure of even the one thing he was trying to be sure of -- trying to keep it together for Espella and Luke.

Probably, but that's part of why GS5 is irritating. It implies her character regressed to being the same as her character in 1-4, BEFORE Phoenix shows her the evidence she was useful even without channelling. Come on, no character regresses that much without explanation! It's better than pretending she doesn't exist, but it's still completely lazy.
In effect in that scene Phoenix says she's not just a channelling game mechanic, but I fear the GS5 writers don't think the same way....
Besides, if she's a game mechanic, why can't they just decide she also has a new, different spiritual power now?
Well, we can hold out hope for GS6... assuming it gets made eventually. I'm not sure it was ever confirmed. I think the GS5 writers semi-confirmed wanting to do GK3, and there's Takumi's actual new GS, which I think makes 'GS6' less likely?

what is Maya like in GS1? She doesn't train, loses her powers, and decides she's too much of a shame to face Phoenix hence her attempt to leave for Kurain and not come back, ever. Then after the 'train station scene', she still leaves for Kurain to train for months, but this is BECAUSE she wants to become a full fledged medium to be able to COME BACK AND HELP HIM. By 2-2 Maya IS a full-fledged medium.

Retrospectively, they just decide this is classic Maya behaviour or something, this precedent of 'why she might not be there', she has to decide periodically she has to not see him for months while she trains at Kurain. But the reasons behind this period between GS1 and GS2 don't apply any more, or they shouldn't anyway. Maya did that A) because she felt she wasn't powerful enough to help him and wasn't worthy of facing him, her own insecurity B) she was a trainee at the time, before becoming an actual medium in 2-2. Lacking imagination, apparently they just shove this 'reason' back in GS5 because that's the only other time she wasn't around and it was canonically explained.

But ummmm... how many other clients GO TO JAIL? None except in the later-written 1-5. That's hardly a Happy Fairytale Sunset Ending. It's more irony. The Happy Sunset Ending is with Maya and Phoenix's other friends in the 'ending picture' (which doesn't include Iris). Remember 3-5 originally was supposed to be the end for Phoenix and cast.

Basically 'Dollie' (which consists of Phoenix's delusion, Dahlia and Iris) is like a final boss. Phoenix didn't know Iris, he knew an imaginary delusion he was supposedly in love with called 'Dollie'. Iris did the worst thing to hurt Phoenix, who has a kind of abandonment complex (he mopes when Maya leaves in 1-5, he feels totally betrayed by Edgeworth leaving before 2-4...), abandoning him at trial to be convicted of murder. Come on, that's one huge betrayal. And she never sends him a letter or anything, and if Iris knew Phoenix, she'd know one of his other core character traits is being obsessed with the truth. We can FORGIVE Iris, but should they really be together? Does Phoenix understand Iris EITHER? No, he didn't listen to a word she said for months on end asking for the bottle back, stupified by the bottle fairytale told to him by Dahlia not Iris! Does he respect the kind of 'sacrifices' she makes in 3-5 (taking the fall for the murder and concealing the truth Phoenix is so obsessed about) or her continual loyalty to Dahlia over him, EVEN IN 3-5? I repeat, Iris is NOT Dollie, Phoenix was in love with a kind of fantasy and had zero respect for Iris herself.

And in the most beautiful story of irony, in 3-5 we get both the inversion of 3-1 and 3-4 and what might be read as the counterpart to the 'card scene' in 2-4. We all know Phoenix never gets the card. Well, 3-5 implies he doesn't need it. Phoenix didn't need a 'picture' to recognise Maya in 3-5, just his belief she didn't betray his trust by committing murder or abandoning him in court , because Maya doesn't keep the same visual form

copy-pasted from a past post:
The point is the symbolism of the writing. The game plot gives us another graphic demonstration Phoenix's belief in Maya won't be betrayed. (Which had a zillion times more impact than some dumb awkward scene where someone gets a card and they blush stammer and deny idiotically in a superficial manner.) The relationship might not be 'proven' 'romantic' but at least it's proven REAL, in direct contrast to certain other incidents of Phoenix's betrayal which were constructed (since GS2) as direct contrast.

Shippers don't need a cheesy confession scene that looks as fake as 'Dollie'. Maya's already given Phoenix the Magatama as a 'bond of trust' in 2-2 anyway, the analogue to the lying 'Poison Bottle 'love token' that accompanies Feenie's delusion. If Iris had turned up to court in 3-1 maybe Feenie would have recognised her over Dahlia. But she abandons him instead. The irony (these games are filled with it) is deliberate.
Takumi is a genius.

And then Iris abandons him in court again by agreeing to switch places with Dahlia again in 3-5, so Dahlia comes to trial, just like in 3-1. Yet again her loyalty to Dahlia ultimately overrides any dedication to Feenie. Pretty good Phoenix can believe it's 'impossible' Maya betrayed him by murdering and jumping off the bridge, you know like in 3-4 and Terry's misguided belief in his 'girlfriend'?

Except the belief is not unrequited this time, hence the critical reversal/turnabout of the trial. And Maya is indeed in the court, unlike 3-1.
That might be 'luck' on Maya's part, but it's really effected by Iris betraying Feenie's trust yet again, so it's basically justice/'karma'. Because Maya didn't betray him, not even in 2-4 when she was willing to demote her own interests of rescue/survival, as she does over and over in the series.

Now I think the Iris hate where she's said to be a 'Mary Sue' is incorrect. She has deep character flaws, but some dedication to her own 'ideals'. 'Unfortunately' they are ones completely incompatible with Phoenix's and her loyalty to them (and Dahlia) overrides her loyalty to Phoenix in general. The entire Dollie saga seemed to be a kind of nightmare backwards analogue to both Maya and Edgeworth.