My personal theory, and I'm no Psycho chicken, is the fight or flight reflex kicks in, your Semi registers as "bigger than me, therefore a threat" and "to big to fight, time to run" either that or people are rude self-centred pricks who don't want you in front of them for "reasons" one of those is likely true 😄
Vahz zombies are short sighted, so once you get rid of the living member of their mob they revert to their own observation distance of you standing on their toes
tldr: yes
I notice your Controller is the only one in your sig you don't use the start of the AT name for, I guarantee if you use Cont you will crack up every single Dutch speaker who sees your sig. (though it's actually spelt with a K )
thats not overboard in any way (I have keybinds on Grey Wanderer of him third personning himself with 80 different names of Odin (excluding Odin, Wotan, and Wodin)) working on the theory, he's just that kind of guy
Yup
When I first hit Malta level missions many moons ago on live I really struggled, the combo of Sapper and Gunslinger would often kick my butt, then I learned about how they worked, how their mechanics were triggering, and how they were kicking my butt, now I farm Malta not for anything but the satisfaction of knowing I have their secrets!!
I've come to the conclusion the best way to make a character Malta proof is knowledge, learn the enemy, and make sure you spot the sappers and gunslingers (hilariously just typoed as ginslingers, To the MALTA BAR!)
As I've said elsewhere, I've never felt more villainous in this game as when playing the Loyalist path gold side, it truly is some of the best writing in the game, which is pretty much skipped by everybody, since as you say you get stuck soloing, and some of those mishes are KILLER solo!!