The "Everyone Hates You" Syndrome

I don't think I've ever known my opponents to attack each other unless they "know" the player is there, which can occasionally lead to some fun things happening:

Imagine floating along with Cloak humming away.
You round a corner and there is a small pack of four or five ships.
Your Cloak wears off.
BLAM! At that instant they all fire, annihlating each other.

Anyone who's ever played a Destruction Derby game, where this is most blatant on the PS1, should be intimately familiar with this syndrome... I imagine it had something to do with the limited amount of space on the PS1 for things like AI and stuff, b u t (I just remembered) this also happens on Fusion, in a much more obvious manner. WTF?