Danny's true form is passively intangible against humans and it applies to him as well as he can't interact with them unless he makes a tangible body. Danny isn't lasting hours blasting them repeatedly given they can simply dodge the beams (unless he plays it tricky), it would just be a waste energy unless you assume they'd just stand there?
Empathy Manipulation? You mean his possession? That can only be used on a single one of them and Danny doesn't screw with people's mind in character like that in combat, he'd most likely use one of them to attack the other but given he still can't fight as good as they can, he'd more than likely not waste the effort and use his own abilities. Also, Danny can't fight for days... sure his stamina has gotten better since the first episode but all we know is he's likely comparable to his sister, who remained active for most of the day hunting ghosts, and Danny himself has spent his nights (not days) catching ghosts. So at most, he can go for hours before he starts feeling real energy lose (and that's if he's not spaming his powers).
If he just stood their they'd be able to touch him while he's tangible (they just wouldn't cause him pain), unless your suggesting he'll revert back to his abstract state and stay like that but then nobody can touch anybody and Team RWBY would eventually win since he has lower stamina than them so would turn back and I don't see the wasting that much energy unless they stupid enough to continually launch their attacks. Danny's style doesn't revolve around remaining intangible, he's overconfident and doesn't always pay attention, he wouldn't hold his intangibility for his body either since while that power is active, it will waste his energy, he's always activated it, let an attack pass through him or does something like phase through objects then deactivates it.