I am really amazed this thread has generated so much comment.
Indeed. At a time when there has been much discussion of airmanship v trained monkey where some people need to be told every minutiae of what & when.
When using autothrottle I always rested my hands lightly on the trust levers so that I maintained the tactile feedback of what the automatics were doing.
Indeed. I used to 'encourage' newbies to follow through the auto-throttle when large changes were commanded, e.g. a full power climb, idle descent etc. There was often quizzical look and a "where is that written down?" There then ensued an airmanship discussion including the what if an auto throttle clutch malfunctioned. A humph. I then asked "why do you follow through the TL's when selecting TOGA on take off?" "Because it's an SOP." "And why is that?" "Dunno." Oh dear.