The ugliness of the ui interface does hint at an early alpha build where GPG toyed with the idea of using mercenaries before dumping it but as you said its strange they left the actual code there.
Iryan there are a good deal of things that GPG left in DS2 that where tried and never used. There is the tutorial start that you used in Adepts that was there and never used. There are many things from DS1 that are in the folders and never used. I think the reason the code was left in and not cleaned up is that GPG got behind in the development and the release date had already been published. They where under the gun and did not have time to clean up the unused code. Thankfully that was the case as it does make modding things a little easier. Not easy but easier.
Iryan there are a good deal of things that GPG left in DS2 that where tried and never used. There is the tutorial start that you used in Adepts that was there and never used. There are many things from DS1 that are in the folders and never used. I think the reason the code was left in and not cleaned up is that GPG got behind in the development and the release date had already been published. They where under the gun and did not have time to clean up the unused code. Thankfully that was the case as it does make modding things a little easier. Not easy but easier.