Gmail Contact feature annoyance

Okay. I never thought I would say that there was something that I find annoying about Google and their wonderful Gmail, however, I did and I’ve been gripping about this for a long time.
I am a little annoyed that every time I email someone who is not in my Contacts that that email address is automatically added to my Contacts. What’s even worse is that Google has not given us an option to turn this feature off.
There are times that friends or family will send me an email that includes many other people who I do not know asking a general question or technology question. I, trying to stick with email etiquette, will select Reply To All to answer their question, send the email, and then realize later that all those people in the sent list are added to my Contacts. I don’t want those people in my Contacts. It’s really annoying to constantly have to go back to my Contacts and delete these people time and time again.
I’ve suggested to Google to not remove this feature but simply give us the option to turn it off. Even searching on Google’s Gmail suggestion thread I have found that there are many others out there who want the same thing, a turn-off feature.
GOOGLE, please listen to the masses.
Don’t get me wrong. I am a total Google fanatic. I have a custom Google homepage as my launch page, use Google Talk, and most of the other features Google has to offer. I love Google. But they have to change this.