Really? I guess we may just have to disagree here. The point is that, for example, in the EQ, all the knobs in a particular column do the exact same thing (gain, frequency, bandwidth) and all the knobs in a particular row correspond to a different band. The colors are all matched per-band. Easy.
As far as the Gate and Compressor sections go, the top line of knobs is for the dynamics controls and the second line of knobs is for the Side Chain Filters. Again the layout is the same for both sections (and the same as in the EQ) so you learn it once and you are done.
It's just like a large format console -- lots of knobs, but they are just functional copies of the same thing --- one per channel. In this case, it is copies per band.
With the E-Channel, the knobs are kind of randomly scattered about. The layout undoubtably was set by the underlying circuitry on the original SSL console, but obviously has no particular bearing on the layout of a virtual UI except for a desire to provide fidelity in the emulation.
