I agree that, in single player at least, the fact that time effectively speeds up for characters outside the player’s active combat zone(s) has far more negatives than positives.
One of the places I particularly dislike it is if the druids and tieflings turn on each other in the grove, and so much of the battle plays out without any opportunity to affect it because they’re killing one another in real time while I’m stuck in turn-based mode fighting those hostiles closest to me. I wouldn’t want to wait for everyone not in active combat with my party to take turns, but surely there’s some way to make sure their turns are synchronised with the player party’s.
I can’t speak to how that might impact multi-player, though, as I’ve never tried it.
