Everybody seems really happy with this apparent change in “hover/static” controls in the mixer but I honestly don’t know what change has been made. The “Cubase 8.5 New Features - Mixing and track handling” video (at about 2:25) refers to the insert slots in the mixer so I’ve switched between 8.0.30 and 8.5 a few times and apart from there now being a little letter “e” in the filled insert slot (the clicking of which brings up the plugin gui/editor - the same as clicking anywhere else in the filled insert slot -the same as in version 8) I’ll be damned if I can tell any difference whatsoever. Can somebody pleeease, for the love of god tell me what I am missing?
You answered the question in your title. 03 is hover and .5 are static…i.e always visible making them easier to click fast instead of hovering around trying to find the point where they appear before you can click them.
Ah! Thank you. This is embarrassing. In 8.03 I never even noticed that the “Bypass/Select Insert” buttons disappeared when you’re not hovering over them when “Show inserts as <Plug-in Names & Insert Controls>” is selected. After all the upset hover controls caused I suppose I was looking for something more dramatic - a “couldn’t see the wood for the trees” scenario, if you will. I also just noticed that the “Bypass/Select Insert” buttons are no longer hanging over the edge of the insert slot anymore (something else which was apparently obvious to everybody except me 
)
It’s been driving me nuts so thanks for your time.
I didn’t realise that was a problem. (In my installation of 8.03 at least) I don’t need to hover over the actual button itself, just anywhere inside the insert slot (which, of course is always visible) makes the buttons appear.