Photoshop :: Variations Plugin - Manipulate Art And Prepare For Flexographic Printing

I use the variations adjustment almost exclusively to manipulate art and prepare for flexographic printing. With flexo printing we can not let separations drop off to 0% within an image. We are still film based output. The smallest percentage for highlights that will hold on plate is 2%. If there are any areas within the image that fall below 2% the plate may or may not hold that dot which in turn may or may not result in mountain ranging or dirty print once on press.
 
Using the magic wand > tolerance > contigous on or off depending of situation, I can make pinpoint selections to those problem areas then adjust using variations > highlights > fine > with each time I select darker it adds 1%.I'm using CS5 in 32-bit mode. Since upgrading to CS6 with no option of running in 32-bit mode I've been testing the shadows/highlight option for these adjustments. While it does work, it is not as accurate as variations.
 
Curves seems to be the best alternative solution to variations. With the Pigment/Ink% selected and Output at 2% I've saved a preset that automatically adds 2% to each cmy. Or I can adjust individual channels separately.
 
Using the variations option was much quicker than curves which overtime slows my production. I edit 15 plus images a day. That extra 2 or 3 minutes it takes me to perform the same task in curves that I could perform with variations adds up to about an hour a day.