FFXIII's ATB system felt like a primitive/slower version of FFXIV's stamina system. With how the game was set up it was harder to execute just one action. Not to mention the AI was pretty spot on with battle tactics so there was usually no reason to use anything other than auto-battle. The only thing that I ever had to take over manually was healing, if all 3 members were hurt it would default to Cura even if one really needed healing more than another.