Linking makes it clunky to position party members prior combat. You move your group and notice an enemy encounter coming up. You click your tank forward and then want to have your archers/mages on high ground hill. Now your tank is also running there, because everybody is linked. You need to detach party members apart every time you want to position your party by hand. You also don't have the option to select the facing direction of your formation, it's always away from where you currently are. And finally linking and unlinking party members is finicky.
While exploring out of combat, I think the linking works fine. But when you need that finer level of positioning, it's a lot more cumbersome than standard real time strategy controls.
