Here’s another case. All day festival that I do every year. 15 minute sets with 5 minute changeovers, and no soundchecks or advance tech info. I may not even know all the instrumentation until the band has started. I want a stereo channel. I can’t prebuild stereo and only use one side, because I can’t be sure where I’m going to need it. Maybe it’s keys stage right, maybe it’s guitar from the 4 or 5 DI lines downstage.
I understand that there are ways to make stereo, but I haven’t heard any convincing argument for why gain *isn’t* in gang.