Of course you can cook rice like pasta. That’s one of the ways to do it. I do the pasta boil method if I’m making rice for a lot of people (20+). It’s low stress and absolutely fool proof, as long as you have more than enough water.
I tend to like my rice on the slightly stickier side, so I don’t wash it, and I like to do it the usual 2-to-1 water-to-rice method (although I’m more to 1.75:1 or so). Or sometimes I like to cook it in broth or some flavorings, so the pasta method wouldn’t work for that.