If it's on purpose, I suppose it could be an explanation. It feels more strange than immersive though, so I'm not sure it's a good design.Then if that's the design, it's doing it's job?
I think they built on the same idea they initially implemented in GTA 5, where if you swap between the main protagonists you always find them doing whatever it was they were doing before you swapped. Of course, the effect is very likely faked, but it still does a good job of ensuring immersion. And you don't just swap to a character just find him frozen in time until you jump to him.
For example, I caught a rabbit for dinner, saved before starting my journey to the nearby town, and did something silly when I got there (I killed a guy by mistake - damn controls). When I reloaded, I was still in town, minus the guy and the rabbit.
So I'm not sure what exactly is saved, or even if there's any purpose in saving.
Worse, when this happened, it wasn't even clear whether I earned some bad reputation for killing someone, or if that part was erased. And what about the rabbit (or whatever treasure I may have found instead)? I'm not sure I like a game having a mind of its own.