I don't think that's a fair way to put it at all. I am often impressed by the AI's ability to multitask and pull itself out of dangerous situations or make strong plays, assuming it's not distracted with excessive or irrational orders. Enemy AI is pretty good about balancing aggression and target selection. I have never been able to lure large enemy capitals away from their escorts with tiny ships, for example.
I really think the idea that "the AI is so bad and easy to cheese" is only a sentiment that comes from very lategame players. Yeah when you have 3 Paragons and a few Astrals, or a full phase fleet with scads of Dooms, of course it's easy to kill everything. The enemy AI looks dumb in that context because it is hopelessly outclassed by minmaxed player fleets with maxed officers and player skills.
Having just played the game for the first time through to the mid endgame, I do not think the enemy AI is easily cheesed or abused until well into the lategame. Until you reach certain skill/ship combinations ten or twenty hours into a playthrough you won't be slaying enemy fleets with a single Doom or taking down 4 Radiants simultaneously. And even when you reach that point it takes a lot of skill to analyze and understand enemy behaviors, and still then sometimes the enemies surprise you.