You might be onto something there, Steve.
I must investigate further. I know some but i want to present the best stuff in the freeware league. At least i can offer another excellent eq to start with, that most definetely can be used over a full mix and as a track insert as well. It is

Eliosound AirEQ



"Mixing, mastering, tracking - whatever your sampling frequency is - AirEQ always brings you the same high quality equalization in the entire audio range. And you can use it on every track, without overloading your CPU. Its quality, ergonomics and efficiency will make AirEQ an essential musical tool when excellent analog-like equalization, ease of use and low CPU usage are required."

http://www.eliosound.com/aireq

This might remind you of the analogue days. At least i have heard similar opinions.

I am talking about the (very generous, imo) demo of this plugin, which doesn't expire and has no volume drops etc. So it is very usable and offers the same sound quality as the full (and pretty expensive) version:

Limited AirEQ demo version features :

* Same sound quality than the full version
* No time limitation
* No preset creation, edition or save
* Parameters not saved in host, that's mean that equalization parameters are reset on each AirEQ launch
* No automation support
* No "Class Bands by Frequency Order" option
* No A/B Comparison
* Render is deactivated (this is not true; render DOES work, tested just yesterday)

http://www.eliosound.com/download/aireqwindemo