I do think, for the Eridians monitoring the biodome, that Grace is the equivalent to the Devil's Hole Pupfish. This life form is constantly trying to die, it lives in an absurdly specific set of temps, pressures, and radiation conditons that are so inhospitable to life as you know it, as to to be comical.
It takes up an abusrd amount of land to keep healthy, to the point that you have to cordon off acres of land around the habitat to make sure nothing goes wrong.
As far as you know this could be only living specimen left alive, it is critically endangered. It lives for such a short amount of time too.
But like, come on, hes just a little guy.
Anytime a single eridian suggests that maybe the human doesnt need that many resources allocated towards its survival, those scientists thrum to create another facility that costs 12 billion dollars to build so that they can manufacture vanilla flavor for his nutrient shakes.
He's their little guy. Their weird, wet, unique, biologically inefficient guy.