[Wajus]

There are two reasons why this button isn't just a fancy. 1st of all all those action buttons are not available all the time for you. It's all context related/sensitive. You can order George to jump only in certain scenes and locations not everywhere and everytime. For example on the cliffs in congo it's not just about making George to jump (since you're not performing those actions and only give "orders"), it's more about navigating him through the right path - it's cerebral not action gameplay so jump control is unnecesery.
Second of all jumping and climbing isn't always the only option to approach particular problem. For example in order to get to castle you can either make George to jump and climb his way through the walls to the castle but you can also try to avoid guards by using shadow which allows George to sneak into the castle, you can also use a hamburger to allure the dog and trick the guards - there are many possible ways.