I hand flew a 737 from AMS to HAM once. Just for the heck of it. Great fun. It was right about the time that the Asiana SFO final report came out, so we had been discussing hand flying skills.
I am lucky. My company actively encourages hand flying big jets. And so does atc at my home base Schiphol. You can request a visual approach anytime. Also when flying heavies.
Downwind 06 with a short turn in. Ils 27 breakoff 24. Vectors for base 36R, visual turn in. Etc.
Also, when trasitioning from one type to another, the first 4 sim are raw data low level flying all the way. To ensure you get a feeling for the new airplane. This is company policy.