Can we use "I wish I saw" for a past situation?

In the series F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Joey makes a pass at Rachel because, according to himself, he saw Rachel first. When Rachel rejects and convinces Joey that this would be a mistake, Joey says,

• "Yeah you’re right. But man I wish I saw Phoebe first"

instead of

• "Man I wish I had seen Phoebe first".

This is only one of the many occasions in which I’ve seen people avoid using past perfect and use simple past instead. Sometimes they use "simple past + would" structure because they are generalizing a statement, but in this particular situation and many others I’m sure they are talking about one particular event in the past.

P.S. I’ve asked a similar question before regarding whether the past perfect tense is considered formal, but I didn’t have an actual example then and therefore couldn’t get a clear answer.