While I agree that the functionality exists in ArcPro, I find it very cumbersome to have to switch to the "list by selection" tab to achieve this. I use this function regularly and when working with many layers in a map, being able to quickly right click in the TOC ("Drawing Order" of Contents Pane) to change the selectable layer is preferable rather than having to go another tab. This at least doubles the amount of time and mouse clicks it takes to perform the same function.
I think the "list by selection" pane can be useful for other tasks such as setting the final selectable layers in a map before publishing to web.
For editing data and general feature selection, I wish they add this functionality back to the TOC ("Drawing Order" of Contents Pane). I'm not sure about others but in my daily work, I rarely wish to have more than 1 or 2 layers selectable at a time and like to be able to switch between selectable layers often.
Update:
I've added this as an idea so if you feel the same way please vote this up:
https://community.esri.com/ideas/14787