This should be off by default now. Why am I dealing with this in April 2023??
We cannot set it off by default, because that would be a problem for our less experienced users.
Many of them doesn't know how to assign texture paths, or use the Relink tool. They just want to load the library assets and render.
Same applies for the render nodes, which require that texture paths are correctly configured.
Really this is a tricky issue, and i know it may be a problem for more experienced users.
We'll take a look to this again, to see if there is some way to solve the issue for both parties.
Thanks for your understanding.