SaskDM said:
What Jolt said agrees with my line of thinking.
I was thinking that in a combat all I have to do is wait for everyone to finish their attacks and then stroll past them. This seems a bit flawed. Also, it also seems that I can simply turn around in combat and walk away without worry of being attacked just because someone has used up their CAs.
The point I was making is that you aren't just "Waiting Around" unless you are delaying. The SR system is just a way to model a very chaotic 5 seconds.
If you are last in the SR list you're there because you're slower to react than all others. When you do go you can walk by everyone else because they are engaged fighting/defending at the moment and aren't going to bother with you wandering by.
If someone has used up their CAs, that means they can't act anymore because they've done all they possibly can in the 5 second long round. By introducing free attacks with AoEs, then you get the classic dungeons and dragons problem where I get to swing my sword 5 bazillion times because 3 people decided to wander by and my opponent tried to run off. Not realistic. You simply can't have all your 3-4 CAs and 4 more free attacks in a five second period.
Also, there are optional rules in the book when trying to disengage from close combat that does make it hard to run off when engaged.