Starsprinkler:
The stock plugins in Cubase does not fit into the Lower Zone either - they are simply way too big and not at all designed for that. They are bulky and many use a lot of height (some take the major part of the screen). To fit in the Lower Zone they would need to be compact, have low height and instead be stretched out more horizontally.
So either the Lower Zone with plugins would be taking up most of the screen (sometimes almost the entire screen vertically), or they would need to go through all of the stock plugins (there are many) and redesign many of them to fit into the lower zone… That’s a lot of unnecessary work. And some would still not fit without making havoc on their GUI - have a look at e.g. Quadrafuzz or Frequency and think about how you would squeeze them into the Lower Zone…
With tabbed plugin windows instead, the window (containing all plugins of a track) will adapt exactly to the size of the actual opened plugin (and you can drag it out of the way to a second screen), and it should be quick and easy to implement.
So, Tabbed Plugin Windows is the way to go. The Lower Zone is to be considered impossible for this, taking the size of plugins into account.
Yeah you’re right. Ideally I would love a lower zone personally, but I get now that it’s not very practical without a radical redesign etc. I really hope steinberg are reading this thread. The tabbing is a simple solution to something that can have huge returns in workflow streamlining, and it should be adopted sooner as opposed to later.