I sure am proud of our community right now. :facepalm:
Couldn't have put it better.
Taking matters from another angle, you can increase the the number of "actors" (NPCs in a battle) who demonstrate combat AI instead of standing around like zombies during a battle by setting AI Max Active Actors in http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22368, which is an invaluable tool in many respects. The standard setting is 25, but it can be put as high as 100.