I love Mercs but the implementation feels really bad

I was super stoked for this league. Mercenaries are something I've wanted in PoE since I started playing and realized how much I enjoy playing minion builds and how cool Animate Guardian is.

Definitely, I want to start by thanking GGG for the QoL improvements AG got this patch, and as a premise Mercs are a great addition to the game. I've been feeling a certain way having been trying to build around Mercs all league and having a pretty bad time with it.

Weird first impression:
You're shown your first merc in Mud Flats and they are very likely to clap you. They've got multiple skills, possibly including a totem, and if you're a slow Marauder or Templar you might not even be able to hit them with your slow attack animation before they run away. (I was using Molten Strike with a claw, fwiw.) The merc I killed in Mud Flats as a Marauder took like five minutes and I had to run away, kill monsters to get life and mana flask charges, and then come back. The mercs feel super powerful and if you keep giving a bow merc a Quill Rain they can pretty easily carry you through the campaign--that feels fun.

Suggestion? Honestly don't know, just felt bad. I wonder if there are funny stats regarding HC and Merc no. 1.

Annoying AI:
I joined a private league and played a Rallying Cry Marauder, hoping to power up a merc to carry me through endgame content. The build is working ~okay~, but endgame merc content just feels so bad. You've got practically zero control over what mercs you see and can't affect their skills/supports in any way. Despite my warcries having screenwide AoE, my mercenary will sometimes not be in the area of effect of them and get killed (they don't have ~20%+ life regen/sec thanks to Enduring Cry) or they will have very little damage (no large flat damage bonus from Rallying Cry), etc. What's even more frustrating is that they regularly have (mostly useless) mobility skills that they will use any time they are close to an enemy (where you typically want them to stay). I will use the skill to recall my mercenary to me so that they are in range of my warcries/auras and in range of my spectres that generate power and frenzy charges and the mercenary will immediately jump away using their flame dash/blink arrow/etc, leaving the recall on a cooldown and its function nullified. It's so frustrating.

Suggestion: When using the recall skill for your merc, disable their movement skills for the duration of the recall's cooldown or a fraction of it.

"Broken" Support gems:
The main culprit here is Brutality. Honestly, I don't get what it's doing in the list of possible support gems, as it bricks the vast majority of ways you could gear/support your merc. I'm sure there are fringe cases where it's beneficial to prevent your mercenary from dealing damage, but that doesn't seem like the kind of thing you want to randomly give players when there are other ways to intentionally do that.

Suggestion: Either make a Mercenary version of Brutality, remove the gems, or just swap something else in the gem's place. (Vicious Projectiles for archers, Melee Physical/Splash for the melee dudes...)

Miserable "farming":
The main thing that pushed me to voice these complaints. I've spent the past few days farming in the private league trying to get a merc that fits the following criteria:
- Kineticist with...
-- Kinetic Blast as its only attack
-- No Flame Dash/Frostblink (so it will stay next to my minions and I for the love of God)

or

-Toxicologist/Sniper with...
--Attack skill supported by Mirage Archer and not Brutality
--No Blink Arrow/Dash
(I wanted to give them Wilma's Requittal, but I realized they cannot equip it because it has no dex requirement. Womp.)

Literally, the only mapping I've done in the private league the past few days has been running scoured t16 maps with Heist on the map device to get blueprints/markers for another player and me trying to find any mercs that fit those criteria. Days of mapping and I haven't found any.

Today, I spent a few hours running t1-3 maps in the main Mercs league trying to find one Withertouch with Bane to test something and in the entire session I found no Withertouch mercs.

And, yes, I have been keeping three types of Mercenary exiled. I have found multiple copies of multiple types of mercs (including Int mercs), but not a single Withertouch. I ran enough (mostly scoured) t1-3 maps to level a 79 character to 82.

Suggestion: At least bias certain maps towards certain types of mercs so that players can have better odds of finding the type of mercenary they want, even if you're determined to not let them choose skills/supports.

I really want to keep playing this league and trying out different tech with mercs, but I'm getting so burnt out trying to find mercenaries that actually function how I'd like. I'm not exaggerating when I say I've spent days with no luck. Feels bad.