The inspector has been the key feature in every cubase version since black and white on an Atari 520 in black and white. It's not really a patch panel, but a quick way of accessing all manner of things. You can, depending on version, do useful things to the things the channel is doing. If it's a MIDI channel, you can select what specific input, or even all of them you wish to use, you can add or subtract values from the MIDI controllers - so making quiet notes louder, and louder notes even louder too. you can adjust various MIDI controllers like volume, expression, pan and others. you can shift the track forwards or backwards in time to cope with sounds that are a bit laggy, or somehow wrong. Have a look at the inspector - you can change the key of your MIDI tracks, going up or down. the audio one is different from the MIDI one in some areas, but so much can be done in that simple panel. I have a favourite bass patch but it plays an octave too low. Adding 12 into the transpose box quickly shifts it up. you can of course do these things elsewhere - but the inspector is non-destructive. That C3 playing at C4 has just been modified - the actual note is unchanged. Handy for repairing. Some of it's capabilities I never ever use - but other people will.
Have a play with it and explore.