Will the squadmates actually have brains this time.

Marketing wise, they said companions AI are more advanced this time, and that they are actually necessary/important to win fights.
I do hope both are either Right or wrong, because if the AI isn't good again but the game is designed for squadmates to be determinant, we'll have troubles.

You could play without Squad mates in DA. Why not in ME?

Vanguards don't need squadmates. We only need shotguns.

Only Ghost Recon: Future Soldier did it well.

They said that about DAI too (about why our tactics menu was so stripped down) and look how that turned out

Tip:  See Dorian thing above.  Actually happened to me 

The gameplay videos we've seen so far have all been run-n-gun style. It seems they've never quite shaken that "push a button something awesome happens" mentality born from DA2. All flash and flourish. I remember seeing that one clip of someone sniping an enemy in the head and the entire body flying in the most ridiculous fashion. Subtlety must have been left-behind in TMW.

Profile swapping seems like a concept only disguised as being for the tactically-minded. I think most people will use it in the way; "Oh I died? Whatever, I'll just start back at the checkpoint and keep swapping abilities until I find what lets me brute-force my way through this encounter." For me, tactics is more about using what you have to your best ability even if, or especially because, you're at a disadvantage with your loadout. Profile swapping means less tactics more rock-paper-scissors.

It's a good thing I look for characters and story out of this game rather than its combat.

Nowadays DA2-style combat looks absolutely restrained in comparison...

The annoyance of AI entering melee in DAI is not actually an AI bug as much as the fact that AI aren't programmed to run in an arc to both remain in range and hit the target when it LOS's them.  It was simple to manage as it's predictable, except when it was "invisible" terrain.

Anyway the less abilities the AI has to work with the more refined it can be. ME has never had a lot of character abilities so they were always more reliable than those in DA. If we cannot issue direct commands to the AI, it is natural to expect them to be programmed to react appropriately for combos. I sincerely doubt otherwise, considering this has already been done in ME3.

If we cant control companions why even have them? Is this game supposed to be a simulation?
As if DAI combat wasn't boring enough, now they want to simplify combat even more.

idk, the enemy AI in XCOM2 was pretty brutal on the hardest mode. 

Or better yet, have custom multiplayer demos in house based around certain class/power builds and let people play against a bunch of mobs and derive AI for specific squadmates based on that data like Capcom, Namco, and Sega use pro fighting game players as the basis for character AI's in their fighting games on certain difficulty levels.