I'm all for "setting the stage" before a battle. But it should at least be challenging. You should sneak, use walk in shadows, invisibility potions and set the stage.
I dunno. There's always a fine line between a challenge and a chore, and I think where it's drawn really depends on one's subjective preference. In this instance I actually like the game's mechanic of just being able to distract someone; perhaps it is "too easy", in which case maybe it should be removed from, say, Tactician Mode, but otherwise I'd like to see it left as it is.
I guess the balance in D:OS worked well enough for me, the example that sticks in my mind being the obligatory looting of the general store: distracting the guards got them to look away from where one of my characters was thieving stuff, but she still had to be careful to stay out of the sight cones of the proprietor and her fancy man who I didn't yet have enough people to occupy. I figure the same would work quite well for offensive stuff that needs to be placed.
Hmm, I think I may have inadvertently agreed with you after so enthusiastically saying "I disagree!" Er, well, I'll just rephrase that to "I protest!" because everyone likes a good protest.
As long as it's not as hard as stealing the documents from the army base in Stalker. Okay, I
could have simply gone in all guns blazing as the guides suggest doing (I may have even pulled it off without being pwned) but stealth was more fun. God, it was difficult, though.