I love my compressors and other tools like eq to be visual. I find myself using NastyVCS a lot. Not having visuals is a distraction, as I'm having to think more about how much I need to tweak.
It depends on what I'm trying to achieve. If I'm not doing anything obscenely crazy I can put something out in a few hours (not counting mastering and other such things.) If I'm doing symphonic metal stuff with 20+ tracks of orchestra alone it can take me months if I'm in the middle of a dry spell o...
If I find a preset that fits what I'm trying to achieve, I use the preset. I'm a musician first, sound designer second. If I already have the sound I need without fiddling around I see no reason to waste time tweaking when I could be writing actual music. It's only cheating if you have someone else ...