Always appreciate your feedback. I'll do additional play testing to see if i can fix the black out and see if it's repeatable. The Soothing Mist crash is likely something i can repeat.
I'll look at addition ways to make it clear that passive mode is on. There are dancing flags around the party members, I'll probably add another flag as it seems like a lot of people miss it.
The micromanagement is going to be a flavour in the game. The game has been designed around controlling your party so adding in smart allies would undermine many different mechanics and ideas that have already been implemented. I think that overall this is the right call but I know that it's going to be a divisive mechanic.
On the overall release front, the next 2.5 months are basically all about improving the main issues you brought up in the bottom paragraph. If Healed To Death flops in the April release, I don't think delaying it until an July/August release is going to change that outcome. I can understand how the opposite could be true for different people, but when I consider my own skill set and the other person i'm working with, an April release is the best scenario.