Locating the priestess easily

Not really, for a couple of reasons, mainly down to the fact that you only ever have one Legendary Pirate versus potentially several for the Tavern pirates:

1) Pressing on a portrait for a Tavern pirate already has an existing function - to select that unit for deployment.
2) The focus mechanic pans the camera to the Legendary Pirate. Tavern pirates can be deployed in multiple locations across the entire map.

Plus (as previously mentioned), being able to keep a track of your units is part of the skill of the game.