Learning to avoid telegraphed AOE's is a necessary skill and not only makes it easier for the rest of the party: Healers don't have to heal more, if they don't have to heal more they can save resources for other things like DPS or saving OTHER people who mess up. Most telegraphs on most bosses and later fights give a Vuln debuff which in turn makes it harder to keep you alive and riskier to take further hits.
All in all doing the encounter "correctly" is optimal in most cases and a good balance between expediency and recovery potential.
You are expected by design to be able to maintain your rotation while avoiding telegraphed damage.
In most "hardcore" content one telegraph eat means death or possibly engaging the healers attention when it could be better used preparing for the next stage. If we want decent players it's an easier thing to teach and remember "don't stand in orange" than it is to find out which and what AOE's you CAN eat that have relatively little effect.
Squadron AI you were expected to pull them to YOU out of it by giving commands. Squadron AI is the absolute basest of the base standards for AI companions.