> A separate issue would be a feature request to not do that (assuming it really does).

I tried to verify this (the fact that modules get imported with help('modules')).  Here are the results:
  * Lib/foobar.py:
    - help('modules'): foobar in the list, code is *not* executed;
    - help('foobar'): code is executed;
  * Lib/deleteme/__init__.py:
    - help('modules'): deleteme in the list, code is executed;
    - help('deleteme'): code is executed;
  * Lib/deleteme/__init__.py and Lib/deleteme/foobar.py:
    - help('modules'): deleteme in the list, only __init__ code is executed;
    - help('deleteme.foobar'): foobar code is executed;

So it seems the only code that gets executed with help('modules') is the one in packages' __init__s.  It also seems that the code is executed only once, so doing help('deleteme') after help('modules') doesn't execute the code again.