erm... i guess it was built after an R8 thread started, whatever thread you are referring to, in that i built it last week. I'm not sure i know what you're referring to
Its a pretty standard patchbay job with the sockets wired to the pins of one of the two sound ROM chips. Theres a lot of potential pin connections that just cause a whole lot of distortion and noise so i avoided most of them but i guess its just a matter of personal preference. Just avoid the power pins and just about any short on the sound ROM will do something interesting.
The most difficult part was the hardware and mounting the patchbay case on the side.
Personally i prefer the patchbay method mainly because you can get hundreds more different combinations of bends than you can with switches and you tend to come up with a lot more unexpected stuff. I appreciate that you might want to use a quick glitch as a fill or whatever which is why i've got two switches on there than can be patched in line with any other connection, and a momentary push button that does the same but doesn't latch. It takes more planning but i tend to use these things more as studio tools than for live jamming.
A bank of switches are a lot more immediate i agree, but for long term use i'd probably go for a patchbay for its wider potential. I guess its down to personal preference though really.