using the auto publisher for articles (cron driven) also for templates:
monday, 4am, make xyz.tpl the frontpage.tpl

two use scenarios for this feature:

a) switch off comments in the templates over night, when nobody is available to check on them. this has become an important feature in germany where some court decisions stated that the editorial team is responsible for the content on the website, including comments. so this is a feature larger publications use today already in germany.
"This could be more elegantly implemented by changing the comments related switches (enabled, moderated, public etc.) in the publication (see the publication edit screen)."

b) change your "look and feel" during the day. morning: traffic news on top, lunch time: restaurant reviews and ads, evening: tv programme. this would be easily done with a daily events and on template level.
"If you don't really need a changed layout and look, just a different set of articles then this also can be implemented through article "playlists", custom lists of articles."

the current workaround would go through "phantom articles" and then lists with "if start" conditions, there the articles would be triggered by the scheduler.