How does one get iPhone to recognize wifi network of choice, as first choice?
If you have iCloud Keychain enabled, the prioritized list of networks from your Mac will sync to your phone, including the order. 

If you don't want to enable it, though, I do not know of any way to arrange networks on the phone by priority, except by forgetting them all and adding them in order of desire (the ones added earlier in the process will be preferred.)