Are you aware that you can toggle between track view and a full MIDI piano roll view by using the Multidock, docking the piano roll view in there, and pressing the keyboard shortcut D? So, one keyboard shortcut wouldn't just switch between clips and notes, but switch between a view that's optimized for clips and one that's optimized for MIDI editing (and which has individual strips for velocity, controllers, etc.). In the strip, you can adjust velocities for individual notes, drag to edit velocities for multiple notes, use a line tool to draw linear velocity changes, change the resolution, change the velocity of only selected notes (very handy with chords, where lots of notes hit at the same time), and more.
Acid always was a cool program, I've logged many hours with it

It was one of my two main programs before Sonar appeared. However I think if you try too hard to replicate your Acid workflow within Sonar, you may miss much of what Sonar has to offer.