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I prefer Amabel by miles. It's such a tender sounding name, kind of dusky pink, makes me think of roses. It's classic and really underused. Annabel just sounds kind of stiff and awkward, with none of Amabel's warmth (although I do love Anabela - it's the only Annabel variant that looks balanced).
Pronouncing Amabel like amaybel never occured to me - I think people would get used to Amabel quickly since the pronounciation is fairly intuitive. And I imagine spelling would be easier to deal with than Annabel since there are fewer variants.
Amabel and Annabel do look very similar in some people's handwriting though. It's not enough to put me off the name but it could be annoying.