While all this willy waving about flying around with AT/FD/AP disengaged is very impressive, it just isn't how our employers (or the people down the back come to that) really want it done is it. Infact having just converted onto another type very recently, I'm no longer allowed to disconnect the AT, which is taking some getting used to.
The role of a pilot has changed dramatically as the skies have got impossibly busy and the technology has advanced to the brink of being so complex that it's incompatible with humans. I absolutely LOVED doing my MEIR in the Beech Duchess many moons ago, poling around on basic instruments and tracking needles left right and centre. But frankly that's great when you'e doing 130kts with just yourself and a crusty old instructor to look out for. When you're flying something considerably larger, faster and more able to inflict large scale damage to others all this willy waving just becomes utter tosh.
I'll still fly manually when the conditions and workload permit but unless I'm doing a visual approach the FD and/or the FPV stay on. Even then it's a rare event to do a visual approach these days so best kept for the spare time in the sim at the end of a check. I'm big enough to admit my manual flying skills aren't what they were ten years ago and while that's a little bit sad, I would say other more relevant skills / competencies are substantially improved as I've adapted to the role of the pilot changing.
We're in the business of getting people and cargo from A to B in the safest manner possible and with the best will in the world, flying around manually in some effort to prove to ourselves we're still s*** hot aviators just ain't doing that. The very wise words of an instructor years ago have stayed with me....."what would the report say"....
"X was flying manually with no FD when they became distracted and flew through the cleared altitude leading to a TCAS RA."
Food for thought. Although I do miss that Beech Duchess!