One major problem with that is you have to design every field area to accommodate a fight sequence. In CT once you entered battle it just kind of treated the entire screen as a flat mat that you were fighting on. In 3D I don't think it would work quite as well.

Part of the problem is lack of direction on random encounter design. In the early days the random encounters were a truly difficult part of the game, grinding your party down as they moved through the dungeon. Now with everything they have added they just seem there to pad out the game's length. No wonder people get upset having to fight them repeatedly.If you want to make ATB more appealing you have to make the random battles contribute something to the game, instead of drawing it out.