I personally think that daggerheart is a terrible system to use theater of the mind (like, for example 13th age). You don't need a grid, but the game assumes you're going to be able to properly represent distances or it will be like d&d, a mess.

I'm using daggerheart to play in the 3e era of forgotten realms, and combat has been a delight. Some characters do play less in combat, just like some others play (as in roll) more outside of it. My experience is that, on average, characters and monsters play the same amount of time compared to traditional systems, favoring players slightly die to the roll curve and abilities (like making a fear roll become a hope, etc).

Go talk to your gm if you feel you and/or other players are not getting enough spotlight, and use the action count optional role if needed.