They were a big part of the book.
The whole war strategy in ST was horrible.
In addition to what you pointed out was the ships in orbit getting blasted by bug plasma jets.
“Oh, we were told they are harmless,†or something like that was said when the first jets were being fired into space.
I wanted to say to them, “You are at war. The bugs are not going o send up a harmless fireworks display for your benefit. They are trying to kill you. Take defensive actions. Did people get stupider in the future?â€