[recursive]

This was my feeling too, and so I always found a way to weasel out of groups. In the decades since though, I have come to think that it was a mistake.

In the ways you describe, academic group work is pretty similar to being a professional developer, unless you're in a solo project. The experience of dealing with people would have been more instructive (for me) than whatever ostensible subject material we were covering at the time.