Yes they did. Do you know that the patch antenna is not just some clip-on gismo but an actual wired connection. Why? Because that's how real antennas work.
Your arguments are siply not in place. Looks you don't have an idea how 3 element yagi uda antenna works. There is nothing wrong in that we all learn whole life.
Here is a short explanation if you or anyone that states this yagi uda adapter need to be connected to a wire. The adapter provides the "reflector" and "director" elements while the "dipole" element (the active one that's connected to a wire) is the RC's antenna itself. It's so simple for those who understand how does yagi and other type of antennas that use parasitic elements by design are working.
"The yagi antenna's basic design is a "resonant" fed dipole with one or more parasitic elements. These parasitic elements are called the "reflector" and the "director." A dipole will be "resonant" when its electrical length is 1/2 of the wavelength of the frequency applied to its feedpoint. The yagi-uda array can be summerised by its performance considering in three parts Reflector Feeder or dipole director The length and spacing of the reflector do affect the forward gain but have large effects on the backward gain (F/B ratio) and input impedance (Zin). Thus they can be used to control or optimize antenna parameters. The driven element is typically a λ/2 dipole or folded dipole and is the only member of the structure that is directly excited -electrically connected to the feedline. All the other elements are considered parasitic. The feeder length and radius has small effects on the forward gain but a large effect on the backward gain and input impedance. Its geometry is usually chosen to control the input impedance that most commonly is made real (resonant element)."
So if one spent time reading this will realize that the adapter contains all "parasitic" elements while the dipole antenna comes from the RC. When they are combined the result is yagi uda antenna
