I personally think pedals hidden in a rack looks ugly. Part of the appeal of pedals are their aesthetics, so that gets ruined if hidden in a rack.
Also I like having my pedals out in front so I can change their settings on the fly, and also I can re-wire the pedalboard however I want, since I am always changing the combinations.
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And if you want MIDI control- it's not too difficult to build a pedalboard with an internal shelf to hold a GCX Switcher or equivalent, and then just connect a MIDI control directly to it. No need for yards upon yards of cable.