No, this was Battlefield 2: Bog Standard. No Bad Company. First couple years when it was released, public servers.
People would join up into a squad and then promptly have nothing at all to do with one another. The only time you'd see two squadmates in the same vehicle is when somebody spawned in one the leader was driving. And that would only last until they crashed into someone else.
The only difference between a squadmember and a lone wolf was the color they showed up with on the map. In general, the only time I'd see two people of the same squad in one place was when I was following someone around like a lost puppy.
Not to say my experience with BF2 was completely teamwork-free. I do clearly remember one time playing that Yellow River Valley (or whatever it's called) map, and I was part of a group (group, not squad) that took the temple point.
Shortly thereafter, we ended up getting pinned down behind the waist-high wall surrounding the temple by a damn good sniper hiding up in the woods across the river. It looked bad, but we stuck together goddamnit... And by pooling our resources and watching each other's backs, we...
...well, we got pinned down behind the wall until somebody in a hummer drove up and slaughtered the lot of us before taking the point back. I later went on a hunting trip into those woods to find the sniper, whereupon I stepped on the guy without noticing before he stabbed me in the back with a knife. Then I just shot at the whole damn forest with a machinegun until something died.
But that's all highly irrelevant. Point is, I do like being part of a group of people working together for a common goal. I don't like joining up with some arbitrarily named and operated group purely for the sake of getting some bonus, and being heavily penalized if I don't.
I have no problem with clan hierarchies, chats, etc... But I don't like having special handouts specifically restricted to clan members. If I'm going to join a clan, I want it to actually mean something. I like being loyal to a group I respect. But if my only reason to join a clan is to, well, be part of a clan... I don't really see the appeal.
If some group calls itself "the Jamesville construction party" and is created for the sake of gathering together players who want to be involved in the settlement of a particular area, I'd be quite happy to take part. If there's a group of people who will lend out warriors for defense of trade caravans and whatnot, I might be interested in joining up.
If someone walks up to me on some digital street and says "Hey, wanna join my clan"? I have to say that my answer would, almost certainly, be "No".