That’s it incorrect - ballistic system does that, no matter if you use freeaim or snapshot. And there was nothing random about enemy animations - it was an interesting (although not intuitive for turn based combat) way of differentiating further single ad burst weapons. If anything it was a mechanic unique to Phoenix Point, taking advantage of its unique ballistic system. I do feel ballistic system is under explored, and this pushes it even further to “a dice roll to hit” would be easier to understand and fulfill pretty much the same function.
I am not necessarily a believer that reactions were a good idea but at least it addressed a problem I noticed way back:
It seems to me that at this moment going into snap aim I straight up redundant. I don’t think it’s a big issue as going into freeaim didn’t feel nearly as clunky a sImexpected from watching the videos, but still there is inefficiency in the design which I don’t like 