+1 for micro style dials, and +1 for auto expand on cursor hover.  Consider this with internal mapping to VST and FX plugs as discussed in Jeremy's post at http://forum.cakewalk.com/Way-to-access-all-MIDI-settings-and-plugins-in-an-instrument-track-without-splitting-it-m3339050.aspx, but extend it beyond just MIDI controls.
 
Make a channel strip with up to a dozen controls (dials might be more compact than sliders) that can be assigned as style dials or mapped to VST or FX plugin parameters.  This extends the idea of "anything-to-anything" routing that the bakers seem to be moving toward, but in this case, it's a set of control signals rather than audio information.

@ricoskyl:  This is a great idea. Do-it-yourself Style Dials that combine proportional control of selected parameters in any plugin. A sort of macro controller that fits into a channel strip. Then we can create custom Style controllers for our favorite modules (hopefully more than one at a time), and make them available to each other. Your idea is more powerful than a Style Dial, since you're suggesting more than one control, but if the dials disappear when not assigned, we could still make super-simple one- or two-knob (slider) power-user controls for an incredibly wide range of purposes. I can think of dozens of things to do with this...
 
Allen
 

Each FX Chain widget can contain up to four controls: https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=Menus2.247.html
 
And each can have a custom UI: https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=Mixing.37.html
 
Does this do what you need?
 

Thanks, SteveC -- this is a wonderful tool, but it's so comprehensive that I don't think it would serve the goal of extreme simplification we've (or at least I've) been thinking of. It does snap into the ProChannel strip, and when it does, it gets a whole lot smaller. So maybe it is what I'm thinking of -- a small customizable widget with one control (or perhaps a few of them) that the user assigns to any set of other plugins or ProChannel modules.
 
An FX Chain in the ProChannel strip might well serve -- I'd forgotten how stripped-down the UI is for the FX Chain, so I'll have to explore using it to build my own Style Dial. I suspect that under the hood, Style Dials are pretty much the same as FX Chains anyway.
 
Thanks for bringing FX Chains into the discussion. They're a huge step forward in simplifying the management of routing and multiple FX on a track. Maybe most of the work for a "slightly customizable" and "minimalist" FX Chain for ProChannel is already done. The only feature left is to accommodate this OP, namely to let me make a very compact single horizontal slider out of a Chain with only one control.
 
Allen

I'd been thinking of FX chains, but I'd like it to go a step further. I'd like to see instrument controls in a UI along with FX controls.  Maybe that's the way to think of it, FX/VSTi chains.  
 
Yes, the existing interface is perfect, but the control scope is what I'd like to see expanded outside the scope of FX.  Does that make sense?

@ricoskyl - Yes, it makes a lot of sense. There's no reason (from the user's POV) not to include instruments. I guess the resulting module would almost be a customized synth in its own right. Also, most of the controls on a synth are analogous to FX controls anyway. Anything that can be automated should be available to the expanded FX Chain.
 
And of course if we get this, it will be even more valuable to be able to reduce the whole thing (in some scenarios) to a single mongo knob.
 
Allen
 

Cool, I'm glad that helped, or at least initiated some ideas.
 
Yeah...  I don't think instruments are a part of FX Chains, or at least I've never tried that before.  Then again, instruments can be inserted into FX Bins so maybe it is possible.