With loading times it makes sense to require user input to confirm you're ready to play after loading is done. Otherwise you'd have to stay glued to the screen

With loading times it makes sense to require user input to confirm you're ready to play after loading is done. Otherwise you'd have to stay glued to the screen during loading so you don't miss anything. A game like Project Zomboid has fairly significant loading times even on decent machines and you can get killed in no times if you're not paying attention. If there was no "press any key to start" after the loading screen I wouldn't be able to get a cup of coffee and instead have to sit there anxiously for 20 seconds.