read_excel does not attempt to parse strings as dates w/ parse_dates = False, but it treats date/time cells as datetime objects instead
it should be assumed that the format specified in the documentation is standard and does not require special treatments across datasets
therefore, the datasets using excels as an index should not use date/time cells. the problem can also avoided using CSV
if the problem occurs, the dataset should be fixed in order to pass the validation. this way, the index can be read flawlessly w/o requiring any sort of additional treatment
Not a bug, for the following reasons: