I don’t think Joe really came on the radar until he had a shield - even so the murder in plain sight given what it was had to be Celia really so in that sense yes I think they did steer it as she was the obvious choice.
I think Joe W was seen as being the more insightful of the two so that is why he went
Lucy over Nick was an odd choice - I am sure JR said that was Cat as she felt Lucy was into her (although could be wrong)
I think Nick deliberately didn’t form an alliance until the end and the sabotage of the chess game was also a move to cement with Joe they were both faithfuls
Cat and Alan have been good traitors on the one hand because they very much have floated through but they haven’t really tried to get anyone else on side - it will be interesting if to see if they can