Depends how long it takes to select the automation you want to lock, how clear it is that it’s locked (you could end up with unexpected behaviour because you forgot to unlock it) and how long it takes to unlock it.
Also, if you engage fill to end and lock a chunk of automation that you don’t want overwritten, you’d be filling the automation right thru any virgin territory (unless you select a big area of the project including all the virgin territory you want to keep).
Would you be able to lock multiple regions of a project? Will I have to choose which tracks I lock as well as what part of the timeline gets locked?
I guess the thing is, when I’m working on a show, I’m concentrating on the area I want to write automation to… which might be just one song. I don’t think about it in terms of the areas I don’t want to write automation to (because they’re out of my field of vision, maybe an hour or more further down the timeline).
It’s much easier to think “I want to write automation in this section” than it is to think “You know this section I’m not working on and haven’t worked on for days? I want to make sure I don’t write any automation over there while I’m working here.”
You can easily forget that you’ve even done any automation later in a project. Boom. Gone.
I don’t get why SB would provide Fill To End, and Fill Loop options, but refuse to consider Fill To Right or Fill To Left. Both very intuitive functions, takes no effort to figure out what they do, and what will happen when they’re both switched on (= Fill Loop). The only argument against it seems to be that you don’t want to turn one button in the Automation panel into two. (But you’d be happy to add a whole pile of “lock automation” functionality).
FWIW, I don’t think I’ve ever needed to use Fill Loop. But I would use Fill To Right all the time.
You know, this is like going into a restaurant and saying “I’d like the steak”, then being served a lasagne while the chef tells you “It’s like steak, it’s got beef in it, but it’s better because it’s got cheese and sauce and pasta as well!” I like lasagne as much as the next guy, but sometimes you just want the steak.