Here's an image of what I see when I select one row of notes:
 
For me, this contrast is not nearly as strong as I would like.  I would prefer to just barely see those notes that are not editable. 

As much as I have tried to respond to your last few problem posts in a positive and helpful manner - you seriously think the distinction between selected and un-selected notes in your example is unclear? As a fellow antipodean, my only advice is to lodge a bug report with Specsavers
 
Sorry mate - I am just not feeling your pain!  Others may be more sympathetic:)

To me eyes, the velocity pane is very cluttery in the image above.  I would prefer to notice *only* the notes I selected, or at least to make the unselected notes extremely faint, so that the selected ones stand out a lot more.
 
I do my edits on the fly, so high contrast is even more important than when we're looking at a still image.

Why not use the show only selected velocities then? 
 
You are either up very early or very late BTW:)

I get up early. :)
 
I don't like to turn on Show Velocity on Selected Notes only because when no notes are selected, there are no velocities.  I then have to select all the notes in order to see their velocities, which is an extra step, and a bit of a pain when editing on the fly.  Since most of the time I don't need to filter by specific notes, this would not be ideal.
 
In other words:
 
1) Most of the time I want to see all notes' velocities.
2) Sometimes I want to see only selected notes' velocities.
3) I *never* want to see no notes' velocities.
 
When Show Velocity on Selected Notes only is enabled, #2 works well, but #1 requires manual selection of all notes each time I want to look at velocities (which is frequently).  This is not ideal.

When Show Velocity on Selected Notes only is disabled, #1 works well, but #2 does not work, since it shows both selected and unselected notes' velocities.  This is not ideal, unless there is a way to dramatically increase the contrast between selected and unselected notes' velocity bars.
 
Does that make sense?

Travis, you've referred a couple of times to "the way Sonar used to be", but I go back to Sonar 6 and cannot remember a version in which the contrast between selected and non-selected velocity bars being greater than that show in your screenshot.
In my eyes, the difference is obvious and striking, with no possibility of mistake or error.

In Sonar X3 (and earlier versions), when Show Velocity on Selected Notes only is selected, then when no notes are selected you see all notes' velocities (good), and when some notes are selected you only see those notes' velocities (good).  This behavior, to me, is perfect, because it is both intuitive and efficient.  (Selection enables a filter, and lack of selection means no filter; that's the standard behavior of search engines and other applications' filters, so Sonar was "correct" in handling it the same way.)
 
In Sonar Platinum, when Show Velocity on Selected Notes only is selected, then when no notes are selected, you don't see any velocities (bad), and when some notes are selected, you only see those notes' velocities (good). The lack of any velocities when no selection is made is useless and requires the user to make a selection of the entire set of notes.  This is not how other applications and search engines work, and is both inconvenient and unintuitive.
 
To me, it looks like the Sonar Platinum programmers forgot to add back the logic which says "if no notes are selected, show all notes' velocities".  It's a simple oversight/bug which could be fixed easily. 
 
Of course, maybe there is another reason they changed the behavior for Sonar Platinum.  Can you think of any reason why it's better to have the absence of note selection result in NO velocities than ALL velocities?

BJ, I'm not anti-Sonar.  I love Sonar.  I just wish it would stop changing in ways that make it harder (for me) to use.  To me, the most intuitive version was 8.5.3.  X1/2/3 and Platinum are prettier, and seem to bring a lot of cool plugins and other features... but the post-8.5.3 versions have created a lot of inconveniences for me. 
 
Everyone uses Sonar in different ways.  It does so much.  Audio, video syncing, looping, staff view...  So many options, most of which I never use.  I pick some soft synths, improvise in the piano roll, and then clean up the messy notes I made, usually in real time.  I try to work quickly, so editing efficiency is key.  That's why I'm so sensitive to the changes in workflow which make things less efficient than they were (or could be).  If you look at my recent topics, you'll see a common thread: something used to be easy, but now is harder or slower.
 
I don't hate Sonar.  I just wish the devs would spend some time trying to add back some of the behaviors they took way.
 

I see what you mean, and am happy to accept given your concern that the behaviour may have been different previously - but if you think about it, showing the velocities of all notes when you have selected 'show velocities of selected notes only' kind of flies in the face of logic. You could say they fixed something that was broken!
 
Surely in the grand scheme the fact that velocity bars change colour rather than disappear when not selected is not a huge deal.
What I have found consistently is that once I adapt to new behaviours in Sonar I invariably find advantages down the track.
 
Sorry - that's all I've got. Unlike you I'm up late :)

showing the velocities of all notes when you have selected 'show velocities of selected notes only' kind of flies in the face of logic. You could say they fixed something that was broken!

 
If no notes are selected, then an application can either show ALL notes or NO notes. 
The old Sonar showed ALL notes, which was useful. 
The new Sonar shows NO notes, which is useless. 
I don't call that a fix!