Granted, for automation there is still the internal bypass option in the plugin.
Anyway, I wrote to SSL and they told me to use the VST2 versions of the plugins if I wanted to use the bypass and that “they are otherwise functionally and sonically identical”.
And wrote again to ask what the advantage of the VST3 versions is, but the answer was: “There is no advantage to the VST3 versions - we include them simply for completeness.”
Interesting. 