Ambushed respawn points: trap, bug or opportunity?

Sometimes it happens: your party gets killed and respawns at a spot surrounded by enemies. Ice Floe has such a place, and, if I recall well, the Black Curtain too. When this happens to me with a party of henchmen I accept that my penalty will rise to -60% and knock out every enemy one by one in an attack/respawn/attack/respawn sequence... Thus turning the trap into an opportunity
The rest of the map will be done the same way, since time to figure out a strategy with a weakened party simply is a waste. So I made it to the temple of ages and Marhans Grotto. But I cant imagine this is the meaning of such an ambush. Or is it a bug?

I find respawn points work very strangely. Usually they will just send you back to where ever you came from, regardless of whether you're standing 20 feet away from another one or directly on top of it. That being said, it will sometimes send you away into the middle of nowhere. The only exception I find is if there is a respawn point, and there are enemies close enough to start attacking you as soon as you respawn, you will end up there.

So in my (cynical) opinion, priority seems to be camped respawn points, followed by wherever you came from, then respawn points you never knew existed, and lastly, the closest respawn point.

The respawn also seems to measure from the first dead person, not the last dead person, in order to try and slow down the rush through the areas. The area outside lions arch even has one of these "trap points" and even low level fire imps hurt lots in a gang bang.