Direct control in DK2 wasn't necessary. Yeah, there were things you could do that the creature AI couldn't do on its own, but you were forsaking tactical overview to micromanage a single unit. It was more "fun" than "effective" most of the time.
(for example, in War for the Overworld I controlled some units manually to take out several traps in the location I needed to conquer, just because the AI was doing a bad job of it: walk over it, trigger it, get hurt, run away to heal, repeat. Yes, eventually the combined might of several units would deal damage to it over time, but a single unit couldn't do much because it would only attack the trap a couple times, it would then reset, and the unit would forget it was there).