Leaving to run unhindered makes sense when the agents understand both the complete domain context and can be supplied with a strong exit criteria that they understand well.

Otherwise time boxing is both going to help stop entities from wandering off into the weeds. And also communicate expectations from the commissioner about the expected effort levels and output quality requirements.

Empirically in human world, get very different results when an employee, particularly a junior, is asked to spend 1/2 a day on a work package, a week or are left completely to their own devices.