Pressing Escape is instant and player controlled, however, it is not a global pause. Many things are still occurring in the world.

Entering turn-mode, when it's even possible to do so, does not act like an instant and global pause. It will pause a very small area within the game, when it finally gets around to it, but many things are still happening in the bigger picture.

This request is currently beyond Divinity engine's capabilities. There have also been requests for true pausing for the other Divinity games. At this time, it's even impossible for modders to add a true and global pause. This is a problem with cinematics too, in Baldur's Gate 3, so I'm hoping that the developers might finally give it some attention. I'm really unsure why Divinity developers and fans alike abhor the idea of having a player controlled global pause, but I hope that their stance against it might change.

i don't see the point in posting your thread twice but the answer is the same

Baldur's Gate 3 has no pause because it is designed to multi-play and pause breaks that... fans said no thanks and the devs removed the option in order to keep better multi running

as it happens I agree with them, even thou I'm not a big multi-player fan