Actually no, Bethesda didn't create a system of bugs (well, I mean they did, but this isn't what happened here). This system was intentionally designed the way it is for very good reasons (*cough*console/low-endPC's*cough*). Snarkywriter doesn't really go into the precombines/previs system but it works hand in hand with the systems that are covered in this thread for performance overall. The only thing about this system that could be argued is buggy is portions of the workshop scripts and how they process settlement resources for reporting in the HUD and pipboy. UF4OP team has done their best to improve this. I explain why its a problem below.
However the other main problem, as you've figured out Zonary, is user habits. Yes I think Bethesda should've thought a bit more about how users will play, especially those of us who are ADHD and perpetually doing the in/out of workshop mode dance, running into a settlement for 30 seconds and leaving again, etc. But also consider that this whole system is unique, Fallout 4 is the first time a system like this has ever been implemented in any of their games and I think overall they've done a pretty amazing job getting it to work as well as they did the first time out.
I would argue however that you don't necessarily need to force yourself to spend 10 minutes letting the game run before playing. In fact just waiting in some random non-settlement location for 10 minutes does nothing. The important waiting is done in settlement doing nothing every time you visit. In most cases (assuming you're not already pushing your hardware too far as Snarky describes) just waiting 60 seconds is actually sufficient.
Part of the reason for the "bugginess" of the workshop reporting system is actually a result of the history of scripting for the Fallout/Elder Scrolls games to begin with. All the games made with the GECK or CK (gamebryo engine) use a home grown language specific to their games and they add on to it as necessary to update it for whatever new functions they need each game. The current scripting language in use in Fallout 4 wasn't even used in the older Fallout games, it was created for the first time for Skyrim. So the functionality added to the language for the purposes of Fallout 4 settlements is maybe not the most efficient means of scripting workshop reporting when taking into account typical user behavior.
Finally remember that Sim Settlements is pushing the scripting language, the entire performance system (including everything in Snarky's posts), and our hardware well beyond Bethesda's intended limits. Almost certainly well beyond the limits they had even imagined might be hit by mod authors. Kinggath and the dev/support team realized just how far past the reasonable limits we'd gone after publishing Rise of the Commonwealth which has been rocky to say the least. We now have the optimized city plans and a much finer appreciation of just how far one can push before we break the whole thing.
haha maybe?
