Thanks for the reply!
Yeah, I can apparently create a crossfade of the length of my choosing by ctrl-dragging over the lower portion of the bottom lane (similar to Cubase [i think] ages ago). However, it is one more operation than it used to be, and it may require auditioning the split to determine the best fade duration, making the editing process much more time-consuming.
It used to be that tiny crossfades were added automatically when moving the split point - much faster and basically idiot proof!
I feel that SONAR's editing feature-set is evolving away from my workflow!