Hard patching everything together only works for a while, when you don't have much gear. Once you cross the gear threshold where you have a wide selection of equipment, and want to mix and match it to the tracks you are mixing, you need a patchbay to easily and quickly wire different combinations of gear together.
I reached that point a while ago, and it would be simply impossible for me to use my studio without patchbays. With patchbays I can quickly experiment with different compressors on a track, for example. It only takes a split second to patch out of one compressor and into another.