...but I've always found group tell to be a detraction from roleplay, so I try to stay away from it.

Allowing someone the added ability to SHOUT would be a localized "YELL" in the sense that it is a public action, can be heard by whomever is in earshot, and give the player yet another tool to RP with.

Yes, you are correct, they could just GROUP TELL for the rest of the party to come, but I mentioned my turn off regarding that up above.

If keeping track of a direction is unwanted, perhaps the SHOUT command would instead be a true-localized-YELL in that it would echo only to people in your current room and any adjacent rooms, no more, no less.