In any case, now that the game is out and presumably you are actually playing it, please tell me this. When you use the spacebar to enter TB mode in exploration, can you directly exit that mode just like that, or do you have to take some actions while in TB mode before you can disengage from it? In other words, does it functionally work exactly the same way as pausing the game, which is to say that time inside the game does not pass when you are in TB mode?
No action is required. It's just like pausing, except that after you return to real time, you can't re-enter force turn-based mode until one round (6 seconds) have passed.
Action is only paused in a certain distance of your character. Characters who are far enough away can still move in real-time until they get closer. The distance seemed a little inconsistent to me, but it's no closer than 17 meters apart before a character moving in real-time is forced into turn-based.