Hi Nick,
1. From an application perspective, control valves are used for plant based equipment control, while ARV is generally for facilities based equipment control and protection.
2. ARV is used when the fluid flowrate is not well known and/or may be variable (as in boiler feed water application). In such cases, ARV modulates the flow without the operator intervention. Meanwhile, when the flow is generally known and is of stable nature, control valve is used.
3. We cannot use control valve with very high pressure differential across pumps/systems. Accidental closure of control valve will cause high pressure downstream leading to high flow churning inside pumps which will eventually manifest into high heat generation inside pump thereby damaging the pump bearings/seals/internals. In such cases, ARV is used to make sure high pressure do not trigger high heat buildup. Typical application - Multistage Pipeline pumps.
4. Control valve as means of pump flow control works best for steady flow ahead of heat exchangers / pressurized or non-pressurized vessels / columns as typically found in refineries, petrochemical plants with low to medium pressure ranges.
Trust this clarifies.