To be fair, no one is forcing anyone to use them. Ever.
If you hate it that much, don't use them.

Do DPS ques suck? Yeah, but runs with real people tend to be faster.

Trust was never meant to be as efficient and fast as playing with real people. So really, it depends on what you want more; Fast ques but longer runs, or longer ques and faster runs?

Although I do agree that they should buff the EXP the NPCs get. While I personally have no problem with it, I can understand why it's a bit much for some people, although I also hope that they won't 'overbuff' the exp gain.

Leveling them is an optional thing yes, so it shouldn't be too hard, but it also shouldn't be too easy/fast. There's gotta be some middle ground.
But EXP for NPCs you don't take along would not make sense. You could also say Squad members you don't take with you into dungeons/send on missions should get exp, but that's also weird. So I hope they won't do that.