Not very totally true
After Brahmin Woods, I got rank 3 and 9 recruits: Kevin, Rage, Rebecca, Ice, Mandy, Trevor, Brian, Stitch and Farsight. They are there until before Rock Falls. After that, with rank 5, I got 8 more: Keith, Stumpy, stoma, Target, Stein, Beth, Stevie, Sharon. And they stay there until after Quincy, and I got Babs nad Billy Bob. They dont have much interesting characteristics.
After this turn of game I will try 8 Cha Leader once again, this time use only 2 starting recruits. Then when I got Mentats I will try if I can get more recruits drugged up.
Report back later, people.