Whilst copying a device chain to a send track, I noticed I had to move the automation envelopes manually. It seems more logical if it would copy the automation too while at it.
I guess you could argue that this is because the automation belongs to the track rather than the effect bay, but I’m not sure if this is the case. Can anyone shed some light over this? 
The device chain of a track is the same in all patterns, while automation varies from pattern to pattern. It doesn’t make sense of all automation curves to be copied with device chain between corresponding patterns; yet copying them manually if needed is the proper workflow.
In your case, do you really need all the automation curves to be copied in all patterns?
That makes sense.
Although in my case it would have made sense to copy the automation for all patterns. The reason being, I realised I needed a second track with the exact same device chain (a sub track wasn’t enough due to conflicting command effects.)
So I proceeded to move the device chain to a send track and then created my new track, and added a send-device in that and the old one.
Luckily I only needed to do this for 2 patterns, but if it had been 10 or 20 it would have been a real hassle.
I’ve brought up the issue some time ago during the 1.8 edition Beta.
The automation data seems a pain to copy along with the device chain specially since the automation area is a different focus area than the DSP area and since the automation curves can be generally copied into any possible envelope through its own copy / paste routine (you can copy between instrument envelopes and automation envelopes).