Not that I know of, and I personally see no use for that particular feature. If I want to deal with buses only, I just collapse/hide the contents of the bus in the Mixer view.
1. Arranger track makes more sense to me that CbB (and probably the new SONAR too).
2. The fact that I can place buses anywhere in the MIx view lets me do what I want when I want.
3. Chord track suits me just fine and chord detection is pretty good as long as the source material pretty clean (i.e. acoustic guitar, piano and maybe organ work best for me)
4. The creation of buses for a group of tracks is pretty cool for my workflow
5. Copy Song data is really nifty too
What exactly is the content of loop channel/desktop audio? Is it the song you want to record your drums to?
Assuming it is, why not just import that recording of the song into a track in Cakewalk and 'monitor' it while recording your 8 tracks of drums?
FWIW
Whenever I start using another DAW I try to find its ways to improve my workflow over how I used Cakewalk for so many years.
To use the weak car analogy: I'll never be able to make a Lexus be a BMW.
Studio One works better for me than Cakewalk did. But I still use Cakewalk occasionally where/where it is required.
FWIW I'm happy with Studio One, but then again I'm not a deep dive MIDI guy. I'll play a simple set of chords on my Axiom if I get the urge or use my extensive ToonTrack/Groove Monkee MIDI patterns for drums to geta basic idea across before the 'live' drummer does his thing on our Citizen Regen songs.
Except for Reaper, which is $60 (anytime) for two full release cycles (currently v6 but probably v7 by early next year if not sooner), I'd wait for Black Friday and get a cross grade if they still offer it for CbB or Old SONAR.
"Starting September 21, Pro Tools Perpetual customers will use a Pro Tools Perpetual Upgrade to renew their perpetual license or get current, there will no longer be a separate, higher priced upgrade for customers who have dropped off their Updates + Support plans."
That's a change for the better.