I think quite a number of Sonar users might have come from an Ableton Live background. Seeing Matrix View in Sonar gives me some hope to use it in music composition and experiments. However, I think there are at least two or three major things that are missing, and I wonder if Cakewalk has any plan to add them in a near future.
 
1. Direct recording into cells.
2. Clip editing in cells. Even being able to set start and end points would already be really helpful.
3. Audio warping. Perhaps just time stretching first, then when chance permitted, pitch transposing.
 
Working in Ableton Live gives me a different perspective when creating music. I would love to see it in Sonar. Even just one of these is implemented, I will be really grateful!

Wouldn't it be bizarre if the matrix zealots became as vocal as the staff view zealots?

Probably. Then again, Matrix View is a relatively recent addition. And quite a bit were promised about further improvements in the future. I don't think we want another Ableton Live, but in my experience with Live, it can really be used as a creative tool in music composition, and that, to me, is an invaluable asset.

I have only dabbled with Live Lite, and felt I was locked into a matrix and didn't have the patience to learn much more beyond what I was seeing when it popped open. The Matrix View in SONAR can be used effectively, but also depends on application. Sometimes it has more overhead than usefulness.
 
As far as 1&2 on the OP, I have simply taken advantage of the drag & drop functionality in SONAR and freely move clips to the cells and vice versa. This does not add much time at all to the workflow. An interesting upside to this is that the cells function as "convenient storage" in a 2D array, so can flesh out a clip while keeping earlier versions easily accessible (more visually compact as well). So from that standpoint I like that the cells are not "editable" unto themselves so I do no inadvertently alter one.
 
#3 is a bit harder to achieve, and I assume you are referring to a more "real time" scenario during playback?

We are always looking at areas we can improve on. Thanks for the feedback.

I never thought of using the Matrix as a storage medium for old clip versions, that's a great idea. 
While trying this out just now however, I did run into a problem which showed itself a couple of times but which I cannot reproduce. This project has a tempo change - it doubles at one point. With playback stopped, I tried playing a clip in the matrix that was from the slower tempo. It played at double tempo, even though the now time marker was within the slower tempo. After stopping and starting the clip a few times, it played at the correct tempo. I could not get it to repeat the behavior, although it did make me think that perhaps the Matrix has the occasional issue in projects with tempo changes. 

I've used Project 5 during a short period. The Matrix view is somewhat a stripped-down version of P5...
 
+ 1 on:
 
1- Direct recording into cells (MIDI and AUDIO please?) ... to keep the momentum going when creating a song that uses both "third-party" loops as well  as ideas just created on the fly...
 
2- Editing in cells : Project 5 was good enough at that as well... (manipulating them little at least) ...never really understood why this kind of functionnality never found its way back into the Sonar X series since P5 was dropped...
 
 

just release a multi core x64 version of p5 and be done with it. ;-)

dubdisciple
Wouldn't it be bizarre if the matrix zealots became as vocal as the staff view zealots?

You missed out the video zealots which cake has commited to improve with x3d. Personally I think this is an odd decision. I think enhancements should be left till x4. More concerned with bug fixes, performance updates and fixing any stupidness within the UI (ie Cakewalk cleans out their bug tracker and closes off all the issues). But that's just opinion.

lawp
just release a multi core x64 version of p5 and be done with it. ;-)

oh man what a dream that would be