I definitely think they see the healing spells as auto-prepared is a feature, not a bug - that it's built in there to make sure that Bards will fill that healer role for the party without you accidentally ending up with a bunch of spells that do you no good when your friend is bleeding out and the party lacks a Cleric, Paladin, or Druid.
But I'd note that these are a replacement for Songs of Rest (even called Songs of RESToration) - so yeah, while swapped a Bard-unique healing feature for auto-preparing healing spells, it feels like a net-loss because Bards could have prepped those healing spells previously if they wanted, or else could have just healed with Songs of Rest and prepped Speak with Animals, instead…
I would note that Bards DO get spells like Speak with Animals later on - via Magical Secrets. But 11th level is way too late. College of Lore used to provide early access to Magical Secrets, but I presume they wanted to emphasise the knowledge and cunning part of Lore Bards over just making them be better at what Bards already do (that's now really the College of Eloquence, anyway). And also, the wider spell lists and the ability to draw any spell from the spell list at the end of the LR means that Magical Secrets is far more powerful than when it just let you add a few more Spells known without easy swapping out.
If a Bard subclass focused on Speak with Animals or other iconic spells - perhaps a "Primal Skald" type Bard a la that one 4th Edition Paragon Path - then I think I could handle that loss for other subclassed Bards until 11th level. But I'm sure there are plenty of folks who dislike the loss of versatility there. For example, One D&D's College of Spirits Bard better darn have access to Speak with Dead from an early level. Give it as a level 3 subclass feature?