Not the most important skill. Much like first touch isn't essential to a striker like Lukaku. But when opposition defenders know a midfielder will never try to dribble past them their defending got just a bit easier; because that's one less thing to worry about.
I'd really like CDM to offer more than just defending. These CDMs can, and do, dribble from midfield: Soumare, Thiago, Bennacer, Anguissa, Zakaria, Henrique, Amrabat, Arthur.
Phillips is good with key passes and makes a descent number of long balls. I think he's a good player.
Why not go after: Soumare, Paredes, or Henrique - provided they are no more expensive than Phillips? I can't stand this fixation on a single player which fans have - when you ignore the player's weaknesses. Therefore, I've appointed myself devils advocate here. Perhaps I should change my name too?
What fixation is this? I would say the consensus is that Phillips, as a holding midfielder, is strong both defensively and offensively. He was described as a complete player because of this and to reject that notion because he is not a player who looks to dribble is unreasonable - as it is not a prerequisite for being effective in possession from that position and is certainly not a typical quality for someone deployed as the deepest, anchoring player in midfield. There are a plethora of relatively complete midfielders in football, but surely THE complete player - who excels in every facet - does not exist.
As I said, I would disagree with what I believe to be the consensus on Phillips from what I’ve seen so far - he’s very strong technically but wasn’t very progressive with his passing. Describing Phillips as being good with ‘key passes’ and providing a ‘decent number of long passes’ makes it sound dangerously like you are reading his qualities off a spreadsheet as opposed to actually watching him?
There’s certainly nothing wrong with having a preference on the type of holding players around or desiring certain qualities from that position, but of the examples you have given of players who offer dribbling in their skill sets, I would question if ‘CDM’ is the correct term for those I have seen - are Soumare, Thiago and Arthur really holding midfielders? No, they are ideally deployed with a sitting midfielder in some fashion. I take it you are proposing United go for Soumare, Paredes or Henrique because of their abilities in possession - are you saying the defensive contributions of all three are as valuable as Phillips’?
I can’t speak for the other two, but Soumare is very athletic and it shows in how he can cover ground defensively and in carrying the ball forward. He also has the occasional nimble bit of footwork to evade attempts to stop him driving on in possession. Without an inviting space to attack or the engagement of an opponent to resist and manoeuvre away from though, he struggles with what to do with the ball and the execution of his passes are well below the standards of Phillips. Defensively, he is far less concerned with what is going on behind him and I get the impression that where Soumare might require his raw athleticism to give himself or his team a chance to thwart an opposition attack, Phillips would have been more appropriately positioned to deal with the potential threat. Soumare is stylistically similar to McTominay and in terms of providing the squad with something different - with qualities that are missing - I think Phillips offers more. So that, for me, is why you would go after him over Soumare.