I posted this a long time ago when I was starting work on my Smart Object RAW book to the resounding sound of crickets...
I'd be really interested to revisit it, and hear if this workflow is catching on, or just one more primrose path I led myself down... heh.
I've been using Smart Object RAW processing pretty much exclusively for years now- since Smart Objects first appeared- mostly because it fit into a workflow I'd already been trying to use. It was a perfect fit. You don't see much, or at least I don't see much conversation about it, and until I was talking with a group of students I'd taught it to years ago and they said they'd all been "converted" ("... come to the Smart Object side, Luke"?) and had used the workflow since they had the class, I'd thought it just wasn't catching on...
By far, what seems to be mainstream now, and certainly what Adobe is pushing is more around Lightroom, which, although can export files as Smart Objects, isn't what I'd describe as particularly elegant in that respect.
So. Is anyone using RAW files in Photoshop as Smart Objects? Anyone?