I realized I missed the forest (overall impact on the program) for the trees (the monthly updates). I'm doing a seminar on Amp Sims at AES, so I opened a Powerpoint for an amp sim workshop I did at GearFest two years ago, in the summer of 2014. I figured I could just re-use the Powerpoint.
 
But then I noticed how much of it had to be revised due to changes in SONAR. The section on using buses to do multiband processing - no longer valid, because now I use the much simpler Aux Tracks. Using the Sonitus Multiband to serve as a crossover for multiband distortion - gone, now that we have the linear-phase LP MB. Grouping the various multiband track outputs for comparisons - gone, now that we have Smart Swipe. All the screen shots with TH2 - gone, now we have TH3. The convoluted technique for rendering in a separate project at higher sample rates, then sample-rate converting downward - gone, now that we have upsampling.
 
What I saw was that in the past two years, my workflow had changed significantly for working with amp sims...but I hadn't really noticed it, because it was a change here, and a change there. When Rolling Updates were introduced, in theory it was going to be easier to absorb periodic changes rather than absorb a large number of changes at once. This was the first time I fully realized that in practice, at least for me when dealing with amp sims, that theory was borne out.

Agreed. I really like the rolling updates for that reason.

Hi. Not necessarily related to Amp Sims, but I agree with going through quite a few workflow changes the last couple of years.
It kinda sneaks up on you
All the best.

I'm much more superficial I just like looking forward to all the neat goodies each month.

Being a hobby guy, I can't digest all the updates and changes. IT's not the DAW it was 2 years ago and there's a lot to take in. The new model seems to have put Scott Garrigus out of the book business and that's a loss for me personally. I dislike reading text off of a computer screen and enjoy sitting back with a manual to try and not just learn how to use the program but understand it.
 
Sonars workings are about as simple as a modern car. All I can do now is check the oil and wonder how the rest of it works. I used to be able to rebuild engines.
 
To me it's a real case of be careful what you wish for.

Yes.  My workflow has changed as well.
 
As Zargg said, it kinda sneaks up on ya. 
 

Evolve or die.

John
I'm much more superficial I just like looking forward to all the neat goodies each month.

Well then...   Superficial R Us.    

ampfixer
Being a hobby guy, I can't digest all the updates and changes. IT's not the DAW it was 2 years ago and there's a lot to take in. The new model seems to have put Scott Garrigus out of the book business and that's a loss for me personally. I dislike reading text off of a computer screen and enjoy sitting back with a manual to try and not just learn how to use the program but understand it.

 
I definitely understand where you're coming from. If you use SONAR virtually every day, it's much easier to assimilate monthly changes. I guess that's why to me, it's been this slow, steady process...that slowness and steadiness is what makes it relatively painless to learn the new features as they come along. 
 
What might help for you is to download a new version every 9 months, and print out all the associated eZines. The way it's laid out, each feature is on its own page or pages so you can toss whatever doesn't interest you. Then you can spend a few days looking over everything, and decide what's worth learning for the kind of work you do.
 
You don't have to learn everything. For example you can simply ignore oversampling, we got along fine without it for years. But you might find something like Mix Recall really useful. 
 
And I know where you're coming from with cars...I can't even replace the taillight on my car without specialized tools and knowledge. Argh.