A few thoughts. I think one area where plugs don't quite hold up for me is buss compression. Whether it's a drum sub or the mains. So I use a Smart C2 and/or a Vari Mu on almost every mix. I also use a TC M3000 verb. Otherwise, all plugs and summing in the box. I do mostly mixing only projects so recall and reset is important to me. And the fact is, plugins can sound just as good as hardware IMO. I know that's not a very popular sentiment these days but it's what my experience has been. It's also been my experience that outside summing is not worth the added expense, complexity etc. Again, not a popular position. Check this out and see for yourself.
Vintage King Shootout Are there differences? Sure. Are they huge? I think not. Are they always good? Not IMO. Check out what the Neve box does to the dynamics of the track. IMO a good engineer could get the desired results with the right skills, soft and hardware, from any of those methods including in the box. One thing I do once in a while (less now that I've got the D Command) is to use an outboard eq on a track, so that I can use knobs and really dig in and find what I want. I then duplicate those settings with a plug. It's interesting to me that I get pretty much the same result, but maybe having the knobs to twist and turn made arrive at different settings than I otherwise would have. Try it.