And as for whoever is on about hand flying up to RVSM....yeah great idea....NOT. For a start my pet cat could follow the FD in what will be many staright lines - and don’t suggest raw data - it would be a bad call to try that in the busy TMAs we operate in, not to mention putting your often tired workmates workload through the roof.
You have to balance flying practice with operational safety/ common sense
With an attitude like that you're never gonna get good. First you think following flight directors is too easy, then you go on implying that raw data is a handful for a two man crew?
Start with what you're comfortable with, and work from there. It needs to be backed up by a company that values and encourages manual flight. If not, they often put so many restrictions on hand flying it gets useless.