Some time ago i made a topic where i described a similar idea about having more universal hunting-defending building where hunter cabin can be upgraded and used as hunting-defending outpost in multi-purpose way. Point 6 in there: Guard towers, barracks, soldiers, villagers
Yesterday i used the hunter work-area targeting to use him as explorer. I don’t know if it is a feature or bug, but they follow the hovering work-area-circle even when not clicked to the ground.
If the hunters are capable fighters and auto-aggressive mode in defending, then it makes sense to enable a bit higher level defensive controlling for them.
Another similar, but opposite issue is with guards, that just sit in the tower not doing anything useful - why not go hunting or something and if raid starts, just jump into the tower or get commanded by me to come out and fight on the open like hunters do.