oggok merchants are now social aggro

[Xer0]

As far as I can tell, this started with the patch that is said to have:

"Corrected an issue which would allow certain merchants to assist in combat."

Am I stupid? This is worded in a way that seems like it means the issue was that merchants were assisting in combat where they were not.

Perhaps I misunderstand and the issue was that they could NOT and now they can due to correction?

Is this intended or a bug?