Still seeing this behavior at 10.3.1, doesn't seem like ESRI is going to fix it ...
Yes, its status is still "Open: Assigned". I would suggest contacting Esri support and adding your information to this bug. If more people complain about it, its priority will go up.
Use the add geometry tool:
arcpy.AddGeometryAttributes_management("featureNeedsShape", "AREA")
This will add the field "POLY_AREA" to your in_memory feature.
Add Geometry Attributes (Data Management)—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation