No I wouldn’t say the case is closed.
Sure EQ automation might work effectively … though it does irritate me sometimes … but there are many, many occasions for other processes which would work much more efficiently ( ok , for me) using a clip based effect/preset. I do find that a complex automation set up occasionally bites me in the ass later on in the project.
In the past I did a lot of Radio work using Wavelab which has track and clip based insert chains. It was incredibly useful. More recently I work a lot in Final Cut Pro X and often have to sweeten the sound in-app due to time constraints. The clip based approach there works very, very well … though of course it’s lack of track based effects hurts!
Nuendo needs both. I understand most DAW’s are built over a Virtual Channel based mixer , but there are other ways of approaching the process.