I haved used it to replicate tracks between “channels”. But the footprints must be positioned first. It may help to use a custom grid where you can snap each item directly into its position, if that’s possible. Another option is to position one channel (from one sheet) and then drag each component from another channel on top of the corresponding component. That way it’s easier to do identical layout. Then select all components of the sheet with RMB->Select->Items in Same Hierarchical Sheet and move them together to their final place.
These are tedious workarounds but possible if you have few components or few channels. Needless to say, native “channels” are desparately needed in KiCad. I’m not sure if this was already mentioned here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1521062. Please vote there, although it has already been assigned to a developer. If Mitja rewrites his plugin to support free positioning and in-place editing I will use it until a native solution.