I can shed some light on the "people at the stops, both Disney and others"
Disney is now testing the new dispatch system. Right now, there is a van (soon to be two) that is equipped exactly as a bus and is running the routes to test the system. It is reported to be a lot of work, and therefore the second van being needed. The test vehicles are acting just like a bus, stopping at loadzones, sitting at stops, running routes all over property and have a lot of people observing and testing.