Okay, that doesn't sound too bad then!
I've been looking for a good channel strip for a bit as I've heard good things about them as a workflow. Also, aa it's an emulation of a physical device rather than a more perfect compressor etc, it adds some nice colouration that works really well for some instruments. The saturation is particularly nice and I'm surprised how much I like using the EQ.
And yeah, iLok is awful.