The PoE system is Sawyer's attempt to make RTwP actually work; the turn-based mode was a later addition in response to market trends and is fine but not the way the game is intended to be played.
Have you made it to Neketaka and met all the factions? The story didn't pick up for me until then.
Trepang^2^.
The only game that dares to ask; what if you could be doing non-stop dropkicks in an FPS and have it work?