'Direct' Outs on Mixing Boards

[digi98]

I've got an 'old' Alesis 1622 board with
only 2 pre fader aux sends and
16 'direct' outs which are in fact
post pre amp - OK to Desirable if Mic in,
post insert/return - OK,
post eq - conceptually tolerable if set flat,
post fader - how could that be 'direct' !!

Is that typical of 'direct outs' on
other mixing boards?

What are most 'Digi001 people'
doing if they want to
record 8+ tracks simultaneously?

In order to get a presumably cleaner feed
on all separate channels to the digi001,
I'm toying with the insert (TRS) connection,
and then I've got to use the Digi001
outputs to send
a return back for all those channels so
I can use the board for a room monitor,
rehearsals, etc. without pulling out the
insert cables.

Other option I considered was to
rig some cable splitter/connector to take
the feed out of the TRS insert and
split it (so I've got two TS outputs with
the same signal),
and one feed goes on to the digi001
and the other feed goes back into the
return jack for that channel.
This seems like
a lot of potential signal munching cable connections to have to make,
not to mention costs for us
relatively low budget
home recording types.

Any better suggestions?

Should I not worry about the potential
extra noise that a cheap 2 band EQ and the
fader is adding?

Even so it's still
awkward to have to use the same fader to
adjust relative levels in a room as well
as record levels going to PTLE?