“Variations” only store the settings of the widgets which are use in a rackspace panel!
No widgets - nothing to store for a variation. That’s why i mirrored every single parameter of the plugin.
Variations are originally intended to make it possible to store slight changes of the few widgets a “normal” rackspace contains, say something like: Turn an effect OFF or ON.
What i did with all the widgets in one rackspace is NOT the normal approach to handle a plugin and its presets! Actually it’s somehow an abuse of that system. 
Generally you wouldn’t need the widgets at all if you simply use separate rackspaces.
A rackspace stores every parameter of a plugin, so putting a plugin in the rackspace, selecting a preset and then save that rackspace/gigfile will automatically have saved every plugin parameter which have been set by selecting the plugins preset! And activating that rackspace will also automatically recall every setting of the preset when you saved the rackspace.
Of course, if you’d like to change some settings on the fly (while playing), you should use some widgets for that. These are then (on one side) connected to your midi controller and (on the other side) to the plugin’s parameter(s) of your choice - widgets will work as intermediates between your hardware controller and the plugin software-world. Widgets offer a lot of benefits - just saying.
If you have questions, just ask. 