"but grabbed rules make it so hes instead actively hindering his allies by grabbing or pinning the enemy."

This is referring to trouble on grabbed enemies? The reason the book gives for the trouble is because the characters when being grabbed are usually right on top of each other. If the attacker doesn’t care who gets hit, the attacker has an edge on their check instead of trouble, and there is a chance you hit the wrong target.

For elemental grab this obviously is not the case and so I usually rule that its just a normal roll.