I have also wondered if it was that bots make Free Companies, like you just mentioned Celeste i have often seen the same gatherers in East Shroud, every time. I thought they were bots but ws not sure as they were in a Free Company and did not have the usual low level gear that bots have.
Still found it odd they would spend all their time, every day gathering low level nodes, until i seen one of them gathering at one of the script turn in nodes.. who knows