I would consider that a bug. Initiative shouldn't be calculated for landing operations.
But then Flight Ops become a special case. Instead of being part of the general rules of Move To (target) & Do (thing) -- like Load Colonists At (X) or Refuel From (Y) -- now landing is 'first check order type, then skip steps (ii) and (vi) if any of the following. . .'
From a programming perspective, that's a terrible idea.
Now, I agree that we could make Aurora friendlier if 'Rejoin Mothership' and 'Land on (unit)' etc., included a provision to set the sub-fleet's Initiative to maximum before carrying it out -- the same way sending a load of colonists to a system body automatically creates a Colony there to receive them when the first ship unloads.