Automatic action does not necessarily make a game idle. The more useful distinction is whether meaningful progress is designed to continue while you are away, or whether the game still expects attention while some actions happen on their own.
What the distinction means
Indirect control can be highly active. A player may be choosing terrain, managing risk or moving through danger even if they do not press a button for every attack. Loop Hero is useful for thinking about planning the conditions of a journey rather than personally performing each action.
What to consider before playing
When evaluating a game, ask what happens if you stop paying attention and what happens if you close it. Those are separate questions. If your goal is occasional check-ins, look for explicit information about offline progression rather than assuming an automatic animation means the game is built for absence.
The useful takeaway
Automatic action does not necessarily make a game idle. When evaluating a game, ask what happens if you stop paying attention and what happens if you close it.