They're focusing on bugfixes instead of content because they weren't anticipating a million players when they released. That million players found LOTS of bugs, and most of those bugs really need to be fixed.

There are very few things in life where you don't have to build the foundation first. They're working on the foundation. Once they've got that stable again, then the content goes in. It's not flashy, it's not pretty, it's not what YOU PERSONALLY want, but it is absolutely necessary.

The AI wasn't behaving like they wanted it to, as evidenced by all the people doing the things. They saw it wasn't doing what they wanted, and so they're working on fixing it. The AI is absolutely a core foundation piece onto which other things are placed. If it's broken, you do not want to hang things off of it until it's been fixed.

Early in the EA process is ABSOLUTELY where you want them working on ensuring the AI is up to snuff, whether or not people "asked for it". Skipping these fixes would be like skipping fixing a problem with the procedural worldgen (not that there is one that I know of). It's a core piece of the game.