That's true, but another thing that I like about atb was that when you play active mode rather than wait, there's pressure introduced to decide your actions quickly before you fall behind your enemy. You don't get that sort of pressure in a purely turn based system. And since you can usually alter the battle speed I don't see sitting around waiting as being a huge deal. With the speed set appropriately you'll have just enough time to act if you don't get flustered.