Moral of this story is don't turn off the AI completely for you companions so they are not helpless.
As far as I can tell, the AI for this game is "check if ability would affect someone; if so, spam it". Which means when you want an ability (say, for a cross-class combo), it is always on cooldown. So you have to turn it off.
You can remove certain powers from the AI so as to make cross-class combos happen. But my experience is that this resets everytime you change party members, so you have to keep reseting it (sigh).
Rift disruption is a "power" move and you now know its not a move you can't use in tactical mode so plan your rift disruptions accordingly.
I think of it as a spell with casting time. No reason it cannot be done tactically.
Since you are on early access I have to assume this is an xbone(console) issue.
Yes. I am a console player. My wife is much happier with long hours of gaming if she can watch it on the TV. I have tried hooking a PC to the TV, but the controls just suck. So I play on consoles these days.
Why can't you close a rift in Tactical Mode? What happens if you try? Does the option simply not appear? Why would that be?
The option is not there. In Action mode, you can do it if you press "A" on the XBox gamepad, but the "A" prompt must be present. After a disruption there is a short cooldown. In tactical cam, the "A" prompt never appears, even when the rift can be disrupted.