I recall the AI for the scabs used to be a bit better, but people screamed and it got nerfed.
And in fairness, it actually WAS a problem because Darktide relies on the toughness and Toughness regen system to keep the players up. When running into a line of scab infantry they would take cover and lay down fire, and would wipe teams because there was ZERO toughness regen in ranged for most characters at launch. Vet was a prime exception and it was a major reason vet was OP, though everyone mis-focused on the powersword.
Literally every character needs to be as effected in ranged as they are in melee, but only the Vet actually was. Ogryn was pretty much game over vs scab shooters at a distance unless he had inspirng barrage, (and thus the RNG hurt him again,) and zealot could only turn to a wall and charge. Psker could usually brainburst and get toughness if I recall right, but that’s major slow fire.
Vet could start popping heads and tossing grenades and be the MVP in those spots, unless they focused and suppressed him and the others were just taking cover because no toughness.
Really all that needed doing was fixing toughness regen to work in range battles too, but instead they nerfed the AI and decresed the shooter spawn rate by a lot.