So...why was squadmate control taken away from us?

Tbh I always felt like squadmate control was pretty lacking. They made for great conversation, but not much else...except ME1 biotic teams. They made insanity easy mode.

I missed the power wheel. It was nice to have. It didn't matter which 2 squadmates the player used, he/she could use the wheel to have this squadmate use whatever power on this enemy while the other squadmate uses whatever on that enemy.

I like to see it return.

Squadmates were just extra power slots in the other games. They only did 60% of the damage Shepard did so they were little more than window dressing anyway. They really need to make squadmates special in the next game because right now they're kinda just there.

Psst! It totally just didn't make the cut.

I didn'd mind the lack of control for powers... Didn't use it that much in ME2 and ME3, and it felt like a chore when I felt I had to. Glad it`s gone :-p

I am delighted to see that Jaal has proudly stepped into Liara's shoes as the squadmate who tries to keep up with a vanguard, gets their squishy ass into melee range, and gets drop-kicked by the mooks repeatedly. I like to think Ryder stops to give his unconscious body a flummoxed look every time she whizzes past. Or at least the sniper rifle.

I do MISS not being able to save myself from my own poor choices with a fortuitous squad ability, though I guess that's part of pause going away.

I miss Garrus sniping things off of me, though after that video, I kind of feel like I should encourage his assault rifle once for the lulz.

Hard to say... I would also go with the "they wont design 2 different combat systems for SP and MP" as jackdaniel mentioned.
On top of that I think, as they want combat to be more fluent and fast paced, pausing it to give your squad orders would be just contradictory to this goal. In this fast paced combat we have now, it is already hard to give "move there" and "attack this target" commands and imagine power selecting without combat wheel + pause.
One of the reasons why I am not enjoying MEA combat, some 3rd person action combat is fine, if I can pause, look around, assess the situation and give proper orders to the team, but this "full shooter experience" is just not for me, if I wanted that, I would play MP or another game. In conclusion, MEA moved from RPG to shooter even more then before. (I watched a vid the other day, can not remember whether it was Battlefield or COD or maybe something else... they had dialogues there too, and could actualy choose what to say, but it was meaningless, just an illusionary decision... MEA feels, somehow, the same, I do make decisions in conversations, 4 options, but the outcome is always the same. Meaningless.)

No reason why they couldn't have both. Just make an option in the squadmate select screen if they should use full AI or only AI on certain features. The more choice, the better.

Now that's something I'd like to see return. Setting up combo's is so much damn easier when you get to control your squad.

I never used squad control in ME1-3. But with the primers and detonators mechanic I actually would in MEA.