Interesting thread.
The problem with airline flying as it is now, is that when one starts line flying big jets at a new company or a new type, there is too much going on initially to practise live raw data flying on the line in busy airspace. And even though they might use old technology, current A/P, F/D and A/THR are very good, (certainly Airbus FBW), as long as one understands how the automatics work, and how to use them correctly
So one uses the F/Ds and the A/THR, and the A/P as well, while getting used to the new SOPs, routes, company culture etc, just to keep on top of it all.
Flying a modern jet by hand but using the F/D is a doddle, even FBW, (as long as the F/D has been set up correctly for the particular flight phase and it’s data is good). However, every day that one uses the F/D instead of raw data causes one’s raw data instrument scan and skills to atrophy a little more. After not very many sectors of using a F/D, one feels their raw data skills are perhaps a bit rusty and doesn’t want to embarrass themselves or worse, cause a go-around by attempting a raw data approach and screwing it up in front of a new colleague. So the F/D is used all the time.
So something needs to change to keep our raw data and hand flying skills alive. The SIM is an obvious place for this, and more raw data/hand flying should be done there. (And trained properly - I have never been trained to fly a big jet on raw data manually, just shouted at or tutted at if it goes wrong). But some incentive needs to be brought in to keep our skills sharp on the line in the real aircraft. I have proposed a system where we have to do a certain number of raw data hand flown approaches in a certain period - just like we used to do with Autolands. We would have to keep a personal record and have to show that we did 3 such approaches in the previous 6 months?
3 in 6 months would not be a lot of manual flying, but it would be a start, and might encourage pilots to fly manually more often.