I'd just like to point out two things:

1. The game is not only about end-game when you are overflowing with points. It's also about the early stages of the game when attributes and abilities are scarce and you really think about every single point you distribute. In those stages, at least, wits is practically worthless in combat. The few points crit% make no meaningful difference, whereas combat order does, a lot. (I still think that the 'detect hidden' part of wits is quite valuable, though, and serves as a consolation prize.)

2. In the same vein, you cannot only consider the attributes by themselves, you have to consider opportunity costs as well. If you put a point into your what other games call primary attribute (INT, STR, FIN), then you get a 5% or whatever flat damage increase. If you put said point into WIT instead, you relinquish that damage bonus in favour of something else. Except, in this case, the 'something else' is, for all intents and purposes, 'nothing', because initiative does not have any kind of meaningful impact on combat situations.

The question for a game designer, imho, really is if you just want to consider WIT as a second way to increase damage (via crit), or if you want it to do something else, e.g. offer increased tactical options. Larian looks to have originally wanted to go for the second, which I also find the (much) better choice, but then got cold feet, tried to backpedal to the first and got WIT stuck in a very unfortunate position where it does neither to a significant degree, making it a useless stat for all except one character in the party.

I find it a pity that the 'increase tactical options' choice (which you get, again, in exchange for significant damage boosts that you can no longer invest in) came out so poor in a game that prides itself (rightfully, I may add) on inventiveness and creativity. Foregoing brawn for cleverness in this context should be a choice that is attractive and valid, not a surefire way to gimp yourself because the game mechanics nullify any point investment by overwriting any kind of battle order with a round-robin system.