Personally, I think they should count as elite. They have the perfection of a computer and mathematics for the stats affected by crew skill – speed and accuracy. From an in-game feasibility standpoint, it would be much cheaper to manufacture drones that are as good as they can make them, with the research done beforehand, than it would be to manufacture crappy drones that "learn" and get better. Also, if these things are able to get destroyed, and fully repaired/remade from scratch, it would reset them to (at best) factory default.
My point is, even if this is a placeholder, they should be counted as elite.