That's a thought... thought looking at the rear panel, it doesn't seem like the AES I/O would be as modular as the AD/DA section. Does anyone make a device with switchable or hybrid inputs (AES3 and AES42) ? This could be an interesting design challenge. If met, it could help accelerate the adoption of AES42 microphones
Yes, the Horus AES is not modular, it comes as standard. Apparently the Horus mic pres are going to be controlable from a browser, I guess in a similar way to the DAD Man in Sphynx. But this doesn´t mean that you´ll find a soft gain control in Pyramix mixer strip, when that strip is assigned to an Horus mic pre input, although I think that that should be the basic degree of control.
But it´s just a guess, I didn´t see the actual software implementation yet, so...
Regarding digital mics and control: I think that yes, AES42 enabled mics are here to stay. But I think that it will represent a niche market for certain applications, like classical music and some parts of broadcast. In studio music production though, I don´t think it will be much popular, considering the crescent interest in analogue these days.