Interesting to read the comments about "Covenant'.
I enjoyed AC a lot...
But starting with the introduction of the xenomorph eggs, AC begins to rehash xeno moments from "Alien".
The xeno replays from "Alien" imo took much of the energy out of the newer film.
Why Daniels? Because she is discovering the mystery/horror of David.
This follows an old horror trope of the haunted house with the seemly friendly but really evil master.
Vincent Price did well with this kind of story & Fassbender is very good in that role.
As for Huante, a basic aspect of big budget filmmaking which can frustrate movie crew members is that it is a massive collaboration of different writers, creative departments, actor egos, studio interference & the director's guidance.
The Alien films all went through a long, complicated development process with the design vision evolving over time, movie by movie.
One obvious example is that Giger, the lead creature designer of "Alien", wasn't allowed to work on "Aliens".