A specific POI has expressed their enthusiastic interest in me for months. While I have moderate interest in their lab, when I visited the university I met with other professors whose personalities fit a bit better with mine and are performing research that is exactly what I picture myself doing in my graduate studies. It's fantastic (and unexpected) that all of these labs are excited for me to join their teams, but I don't know how I should approach the situation with the POI is more enthusiastic about me than I am about them, especially since they were on the admissions committee and likely played a pivotal role in securing me a top fellowship.
I've accepted the offer at the university, but still need to figure out where my home lab will be in the Fall. The university allows flexible lab rotations or direct matching. I would prefer to direct match and hit the ground running on a research project when I start this Fall, but do I owe this person a rotation in their lab? There's a small, but non-zero chance that I may actually like the work and culture in the lab more than I imagine. Or what's the most professional way to turn down a specific lab, but not a university?