One of the few specific issues you described, telepathic sighting reports, have been there since OFP. Yes it sucks that it hasn't been fixed, but it's not something new that came with Arma2. They don't really see through hills, but it's very obvious that especially with lots of forest and bushes around the AI sees things cresting a hill long before a human would. They do hear extremely well, and the groups also communicate their sightings to their side a lot more efficiently than before. Ie. you are seen by one, and suddenly the whole world knows your exact location.
What comes to the other issues, I haven't seen that bad problems with the AI since Arma2 v1.0. Sure the AI isn't even remotely comparable to real humans, which is why I avoid SP as much as possible, but it isn't certainly a showstopper either. At least not when compared to the previous versions. My biggest problem with it is the lack of general improvement along the way. Some aspects have improved a lot, for example finding cover, operating in built-up areas, operating in pairs and small patrols, flanking quite agressively. In other areas there's frustratingly little improvement, like responding to ambushes and sniper attacks. Mods and babysitting done by the mission creator help to a certain extent, but for example the issues with hyper-sensitive senses(or sometimes hyper-dull) haven't quite been solved yet.
Oh, and they do drive on roads quite well if the combat mode is "safe". Any combat mode towards more danger, and they don't like roads that much. Also one easy way to make the AI aware of what's going on around the map and react to it, without resorting to mods or scripting, is to use "GUARD" waypoints and triggers. If enemies are spotted within such a trigger any groups with such a waypoint will proceed to the location and hunt down the enemy for a bit, with the first placed trigger having the highest priority and so on. They'll then return to their waypoint for another "tasking".
What comes to your issue with the A1 missions, they should work by just dropping them to the correct folder(missions or mpmissions), provided you're running all the necessary addons. If you only have the necessary island but not the units you will still see the mission in the listing, but you can't play or edit it.
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