1) Your party avoids traps automatically but not pressure plates. You have to guide them around them. Also your chars automatically avoid dangerous ground effects apart from icy ground (which is a bit inconsistent but not a big deal).

2) What's so difficult in guiding your characters around dangerous areas in combat? The game uses a direct path because there are resistancies in this game. A character with 100% fire resistancy can just walkt through lava without being harmed. And with normal poison and fire areas and stuff you have to decide for yourself whether it's worth to spare action points (direct way)and cause damage to yourself or whether you want to go around manually which needs usually more action points to avoid damage. If the system would automatically avoid dangerous areas in combat you wouldn't have that chance to decide for yourself. You would be forced to use more action points, even if you have high resistancies or immunities against certain ground/area effects...

WOOS