as much as they were mind control the way 0.2.0 is says that they are more or less staying the same
i do vaugely recall mention of how as a player you interact with them being changed mostly to make it less clunky and not having to open a powers screen to use them but honestly that might have been from somewhere in 0.20.0-0.22.3 and wanting to change that sort of thing might be a chunk of why the entire rebuild was started