There is little doubt that hand flying in IMC in the wrong hands (pun intended) can be dangerous. Who can forget reading of the Middle Eastern airline 737 captain taking off on a dark night over water and asking the first officer to engage the autopilot for him as they climbed through 1000 ft.
The only problem was the captain was holding slight force on the control wheel as the F/O tried to engage the AP. The co-pilot said - "autopilot engaged" when it wasn't. The captain failed to double check and let go the controls. The 737 slowly turned in one direction because of a slight mis-trim fault, and inevitably the nose began to drop until at the last minute the captain belatedly realised the AP was never engaged.
That 737 hit the water at 400 plus knots in a steep spiral with the captain still screaming to the F/O " Autopilot. Autopilot."
That is when manual flying in IMC can be dangerous when the pilot lacks hand flying skills on instruments. Maybe too, that is why aircraft manufacturers recommend full use of automation at all times. They probably suspected with some justification, that there are too many airline pilots out there, that can't really fly.
