According to
http://hg.python.org/cpython/file/588fe0fc7160/Lib/shutil.py

it uses utimes(), stat() ans so on,
For some people, it's preferable to use lutimes() and lstat(),but for some people it's not.

For example, in old implementation, exception will raise on broken symlink during os.utime().

Also, copystat() does not check that chown can not be applied to a symlink.

I do not think that it's good to add two parameters like
shutil.copystat(src, dst, followsrc, followdst)

Adding just one parameter (followsymlinks) is not sufficient.

This is a sub-issue of #12715.

ATM the consent is to add just one symlinks parameter and use the l* functions iff src _and_ dst are symlinks.

This report is older but the other one has more discussion and patches, so I’m closing this one.  You’re welcome to follow the other.  If you think the documentation for current versions should mention how symlinks are handled, please open a new documentation bug.