Status effect work both way. Since the party has most of the time the initiative with leadership, you have the opportunity to disable the monsters before they do.
In my playthrough, when I had the initiative, it was very rare when the enemy could retaliate, let alone disable several party member.
Yes and that is the problem, because if the status effects are too strong they make the combat less interesting for the player: If he has a higher initiative he can make many opponents helpless for several turns and if he has a lower initiative he will be helpless for several turns. Watching helpless enemies or player characters is not fun in my opinion and that is the reason why stronger status effects should have a shorter duration.
