I've seen it too. for example with a minor race which I knew had built an economic capitol, but when I conquered it, it was filled with mostly research buildings, so I had to demolish them and rebuild it into a proper economy planet.
another was a class 5 world and each square had a bonus (class 5 worlds often have this), and every square had a farm on it, pfft.
so the AI still acts stupid as far as planetbuilding. and this is on normal difficulty
the AI still acts pretty smart sometimes with diplomacy, even though I had really good diplomacy vs the Korx when I wanted to get the planetary invasion tech, they said 'oh I don't think so, you're not gonna pull this bait and switch and use the tech against my planets?!.' or something similar even though I had no plans on invading them. I was able to pay the Korx to assist with the dang Arceans like the mercenaries they are

I had to pay quite a sum, but it was enough to get them off my back eventually