Using optimization as calibration in large design spaces

I am very familiar with using pre-run scripts to calibrate a circuit, but I have recently started to learn about local/global optimization of a circuit. I understand that, canonically, calibration usually refers to setting some digital control and then measuring analog values, and that optimization refers to setting some analog feature and then measuring some analog values, but ultimately, they are both doing the same basic thing, setting variables, running a simulation, taking measurements, and deciding on the next step. the difference that I see is that in a pre-run script the user may have to do a fair bit of work defining the conditions, while in optimization, seemingly, all that decision making is done behind the scenes. If I had a circuit with a large design space (say, 10 variables, 10 measurements), should I at least try to do an optimization over a pre-run script? I especially like the idea that I can do parallel runs in optimizations (in some of the algorithms), which I don't think can be done in pre-run scripts