The DCP IS doing the phone interviews again. My son applied and did the online application/questionnaire, then they contacted him a few days later and he had a phone interview (no Zoom, just telephone). It lasted about 30 minutes (this of course depends on how talkative your kid is - mine talks all the time!) The applications were open from mid-August thru October for the Spring session. He has been accepted and we've paid the onboarding fee ($200). Now we're waiting on the next steps, but he did get to choose his check-in and departure dates so he checks in Jan 8 - May 30.
Also, in the phone interview, they did ask him what areas he was interested in so you can offer some input. Don't know if they pay it any attention, but they did talk about it.