Unless you try it on a weekend during the summer.
Start and/or end your route at, say, 51st Ave and Happy Valley and tell me which route it gives you to Albuquerque.
Bottom line, it all depends on where your Albuquerque trip begins. The Phoenix metro area is huge, if you start your trip in north Phoenix, it doesn't make much sense to take the AZ-87 or AZ-60 routes. I live in the east valley and taking I-17 through Flagstaff wouldn't make much sense for us. On any day of the week and any time of year, I-17 is busy with semi-truck traffic and other traffic heading north towards Flagstaff. FOR ME here lies the problem, the times that I've had to tow our trailer on I-17 to or through Flagstaff, because of heavy passenger car/truck traffic, we would inevitably get stuck behind slow moving semi-trucks climbing the several grades heading north. The two or three times we have had to use I-17, this has been my experience. Again, FOR ME based on past experiences and where I live, AZ-87 is the quickest, safest and less stressful route to Albuquerque.