I don't believe that this is accidental at all. I struggled with squadrons myself at first but I've played a lot now and their AI is a lot clearer to me now than it was the first few runs that involved a lot of wipes while I was learning their limitations. They will move out of ground targeted aoe - ie those that produce orange circles before they hit, rather than poison pools and burning pools resulting from various boss mechanics. They do get confused if you pull more than one group of foes, So if you pull A,B,C, they will get out of aoe from A,B and C, but if you pull D and E, they will not move from orange circles cast by the new mobs. They don't take direct dmg from most boss mechanics but they can and will pick up conditions like burning and poison.

Honestly of all the combos you could go in as Wanderer's Palace as a tank seems the hardest. You really need to do WP as a ranged DPS or healer. And in Halatali you don't want an AI melee dps with you. Other than that though they seem smarter than the average pug you read about in the "tales from DR" thread provided you don't try wall to walls pulls.