I actually do like having a perk specifically for drones. But I agree, it (and other skills) could be better.
(I hope techies get a drone specific slot one day)
The problem with Attack Drone is that once you have a drone from another source, it loses all benefit except the 1 point of shields per level. Since it's competing against 8 points per level, this makes it objectively worse.
My recommendation has been for Attack Drone to actually increase the damage output of any equipped drone, so that it would still have a benefit after getting another drone.