I too don't use such automation kits, I take the approach that if you know what you're doing then most of the time it's faster doing things the manual way rather than having to navigate through a clunky interface (e.g. hand-code HTML as opposed to Dreamweaver)

I did tinker with the idea of building some scripts that would run on a webserver that when someone purchases a website product from me, automatically sets up their site and prepopulates the database tables with their company name, login info etc. I came to the conclusion that this method would be fine for someone that doesn't already have a web presence but most of the time there is already a site that exists thus requiring some manual work.

At one end of the scale you have http://www.whmautopilot.com. It integrates with WHM to automatically setup cPanel based websites.

At the other end you have things like Wordpress MS (http://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network) which allows one install of wordpress to control a network of blogs.

I have no personal experience with SoNet v3.0 and I can't find any feedback on the internet marketing forums, sorry :(

However, there were a few positive feedback that were posted in CNet: SoNET Web Engine User Reviews