I actually find the Preferences windows pretty easy to navigate; I do resonate with the ability to save a setup, as I muck around with drum maps and other things for particular projects. I would like to at least be able to set an importable template with a bunch of settings that will minimally work in all situations. 

I tried to reply to this thread ~#61, so the Live comment is reiterated above already. I couldn't post, so threw it in a text file for later...
 

worstcaseontario
[...] I can easily imagine somebody [...] sitting down with Sonar to "giv'r a try" and be put off immediately and permanently, then go on Gearslutz and KVR or whatever and spend more time there complaining about the experience than they spent trying to figure out the programme. [...]

 
This quote stands out to me more than anything else in this thread. I have often been concerned with someone entirely new sitting down with SONAR and the first "road block" is getting preferences set so that the desire to make sound... um... er... makes sound. We have all seen threads where "commonly set/changed" settings require multiple pages to be navigated (and know where they are). That initial hurdle is basically the "first impression" that also affects sales, so it is rather important to bear in mind.
 
As an example, when taking Berklee's "Introduction to Music Production" course, one assignment was to find the common I/O parameters in your DAW (I cannot recall them all; but a few were bit-depth, sample rate, driver mode, I/O connections, audio file type, buffers, etc.). Since I do not use other DAWs, it was an eye opener to see that some DAWs have all of these on one simple page (four DAWs were demonstrated in the video).
 
I have used Live Lite briefly (came with new hardware); and although it is not something I would use, I was initially impressed by how easily it "came online," and how all of the "big picture" options were right there.

I've suggested having a "questionnaire" where you tell Sonar what you want to do by answering a few questions, and it sets up the configuration for you. Maybe someday...

After much thought, I've come up with a solution worthy of a "Feature Request". How about dedicate a small part of the internet to a forum dedicated to more experienced Sonar Users guiding and helping newer users around these things.( I hope the irony of that is not lost without smileys.) This forum would of course need moderation. Any takers?
Although the intent of my first post was kind of vague and searching, it's replies have given me one new perspective that led to a fantastic improvement to my workflow regarding multiple hardware configurations. This is about saving .INIs(gonna call them I&Is in my private life) and different project templates. That's not even what I was on about when I first posted. I forget what triggered the first post.
I am still kinda hoping for more wisdom about the history of the programme and how it might explain some -I dunno- quirks of the layout.