I don't want to have to click on a track to know whether I have effects on it or not, nor do I want the Inspector open all the time. And I don't want to keep switching between screensets when the most important thing for me is to have most of the screen available for Track View. The FX bin is the most convenient way to handle these things. If there was any indication at all in Track View that there are ProChannel units in operation for a given track, I might reconsider. But for now, it's an awkward toy designed to impress people who like analogue desks.

Unless you expand a track vertically to a certain size you can't tell it has fx plugins or what they are either.

Which most people will have done already, since you can't do much with tracks that are so short that you can't grab hold of the various handles. Tracks of a reasonable size are basically the default, and it's no coincidence that it's how they portray it in their promo screenshots even now - http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR (look, FX bins all visible - per-track ProChannels only partially so)

Kylotan
I don't want to have to click on a track to know whether I have effects on it or not, nor do I want the Inspector open all the time. And I don't want to keep switching between screensets when the most important thing for me is to have most of the screen available for Track View. The FX bin is the most convenient way to handle these things. If there was any indication at all in Track View that there are ProChannel units in operation for a given track, I might reconsider. But for now, it's an awkward toy designed to impress people who like analogue desks.

You misunderstood me. I wasn't suggesting swapping screensets, but setting one up that shows the info you want. For example to see if the PC is on/off something like this....
 

 
 
Pressing D could then open the PC for full if you wished. As I said earlier the possibilities are almost endless.
 
 

The possibilities are endless but screen space is not. I don't want Console view taking up a large chunk of my screen when I am going to use it for literally nothing else. And if I want to see the ProChannel for a given track I still have to click on it in the Track view in order for it to be visible and highlighted in the Console. (There are hardly ever times when I can see every single track onscreen at once with the Console.) It's just a poor interface. Having the information in-line with the track makes more sense. (Which is why almost everything else is there.)

Ah but it's usually the track or few tracks I'm working on that are so expanded and if that's the case I want to see more info that the Inspector gives me. Mind you I have 2 monitors so perhaps that makes a difference.

BTW i hardly think the ProChannel is an awkward toy let alone designed to impress people who like analog desks. I happen to think its an elegant adjunctive to the fx bin.

I'd hardly call it a large chunk but each to their own. It works for me, I guess I like toys.  
 
I tend to use several fx on tracks, so the FX bin starts to get just as unusable for me as they fill vertically. With a load of tracks showing, I personally find the inspector easier but I do work with a control surface so track selection is automatic.
 
Up until this latest version I found the nightmare of maintaining FX UIs a nightmare compared to the PC. At least the FX UI situation is much better now.

To be fair, this is rather wasting my time. I didn't come here to have people evangelise the ProChannel to me, as always happens if I dare mention that I don't use it; I came here to try and find out how people deal with Cakewalk giving us new VSTs and the like once a month. I'm not going to use the ProChannel because to me it is worthless. The bundled effects seem no more interesting than any that already exist and pushing the UI out to places that I never otherwise look means that it is inconvenient.

FastBikerBoy
Up until this latest version I found the nightmare of maintaining FX UIs a nightmare compared to the PC. At least the FX UI situation is much better now.

That seems to be true for people who used Console view because, for some bizarre reason, that didn't have a flexible-sized box for FX.
 
For those of us who've been using Track View for this for the last 15 years or whatever, this has not really been a problem. You could always make Tracks taller to see more FX. Maybe if you had 6 or more FX it starts to become unwieldy, but not necessarily more so than having to open up a Console view or an Inspector (and switch that to ProChannel view) to see them.

FBB, how weird, your recent posts have just appeared on my screen. I thought I was having a conversation with Kylotan but now I see its you.