I read your post, please actually read mine. You missed the barn Dragos. You are allowed to disagree (after all if it’s not right for you, disagree, my point is the market is bigger than just you… and other options exist. Probably for good reasons!!)

And where did I imply the opposite of that?
Bad Mister, I am not arguing with you. I am debating you, maybe. I do read your posts, and reply to them. TBH, I am not sure at this point that the reverse is true.
Pointing out the advantages of mixers for SOME workflows and pointing out the usefulness of the mixer in the STUDIO context for SOME workflows doesn't make me the enemy of the audio interface. Please, don't imply things I did not say.

My point is I can show you an ergonomic mixer that is far less powerful than an audio interface box, and vice versa. My point is some folks money is an object, for other folks saving space is an object, for some folks money is not an object, and for still others saving space is not an object… so do your research.

It was research which revealed to me that an USB mixer would be a MUCH better solution for my setup than an audio interface, which was my initial intention.

Obvious if your home recording, the audio interface box was designed for this purpose… and there are some (mind you) that are simply awesome. (For wherever you want to use them) recording through those Steinberg interfaces with the Rupert Neve Transformers (wow)!

Well, YES, if you are home recording!
What if YOU ARE NOT? which is the case with lots of people (including me).
What if your primary intent is not recording a guitar and your voice into a DAW, so the Rupert Neve transformers mean exactly nothing for one's purpose, since they'll be never used?
What if you are someone composing scores using a DAW and software and hardware synths and you need flexible interfacing with those? I increasingly see this mentioned in various audio forums. Musicians who don't need recording and "legendary" preamps and all that, just good options for connecting studio monitors and synths.

Small format Mixers from Yamaha
AG-line built for the home studio (3 ch, 6ch) podcasting is a focus
MG-line built for the gigging musician (6ch, 10ch, 12ch, 20ch… ) rough/tumble stage work.
Both offer USB recording to DAW, but the design concepts are quite different

So what's missing in the middle: the USB mixer that's a step up from the AG06 and is dedicated to the musician (not podcaster).
Just as the AG06 is a better, for some, solution to the problems solved by an UR22C, an AG10 would be similar for the UR44C.

In the end, Bad Mister, I' trying hard to get what this is argument is about.

I replied to this thread pointing out that USB mixers could be a great solution in the studio and shouldn't be overlooked in a blind pursuit for an audio interface and that more integrated solutions (USB mixers with more audio interface features, basically) would make for great products.

If your reply to this is: no, they wouldn't, well, we can easily stop here cause I can't see how that could be the case so we'll be disagreeing forever.

Well, it does. First, [...]
Second, it won't work standalone. You need to power up the computer to hear yourself (or you need to start fiddling with cables)

Depends. The UMC404HD I use requires no computer for direct monitoring.

Similar to how there are products that cross-over from the mixer side (like the Mackie) - there are audio interfaces that cross-over and offer "atypical" features vs. other competitive audio interface products.

Similar to how there are products that cross-over from the mixer side (like the Mackie) - there are audio interfaces that cross-over and offer "atypical" features vs. other competitive audio interface products.

Which is great and my main point actually... crossover is good, and excellent products might come out by taking the features of two already established type of products and combining them.

@Jason : just found out that a high end interface like the RME Fireface UCX II can work stand-alone. Not only that, but it can be controlled via MIDI using the Mackie protocol so in theory one could control it directly from the Montage / MODX and use it as a small, high quality (and expensive) digital mixer!

Documented here, from page 50 onwards:
https://www.rme-audio.de/downloads/fface_ucx2_e.pdf