Why cant I record VST/Effects automations live WITHIN each clip?
Not possible. Stupid, but it isnt DIRECTLY possible. You can use dummy clips to control things, but that defeats the object of the exercise.

How do you audition say Battery over a loop that is playing without fecking recording into the current clip thats playing.. Its probably something simple but its annoying me. To hear what you are playing you have to 'arm' the track, but arming the track means that if any current clip is playing you are gonna record every key press into the clip (Session view). Switching to 'monitoring' doesnt have any effect. I just want to be able to jam with the current clip.. and then decide if i want to record in or not
Turn on "IN" its next to monitor