It may have been 'working as intended', but who's to say that the representative didn't think that there was noone attacking the target mobs? From what I understand, the idea of the respawning cultists was to harrass those attacking the lambs, similar to those turn-in fates where you have those static objects you can gather while aggressive mobs wander close-by to attack any who try. With all the attention people heaped on that particular fate was it any surprise that Square would take a look at how it was being handled and make a judgement based on that? Obviously, it wasn't working as intended, just as Amdapor Keep wasn't working as intended nor Castrum Meridianum wasn't working as intended.