There's a comment on r/rpg about how 'initiative rules are useless, just get the players to say what they're doing, then get the monsters to move', and...

... having spent a few hours with a group of strangers whose characters really didn't achieve much while my own rescued one of the two targets over the course of an hour and a half of play - I'd definitely prefer to have initiative rules to remove one layer of players having to decide/agree on doing anything.