I agree, similar with our Workfront proofs, when dragging into the AEM Assets (DAM) folder it automatically creates a subsequent version - which seems ridiculous from a version tracking POV, when questioned if we could change this the response was that's the way the system is designed & built - TBF this has not yet created an issue (yet) - however as we scale both AEM DAM & WKFT across the business it would be something we'd want to uplift so that the proof version that's approved is the same version count as the asset uploaded to AEM....
I'll keep an eye on this ticket to see if you get any traction/suggestions - cheers