Herod
I don't disagree with your sentiment. But, it is possible that modern day crews are not trained or practiced enough to do NPA without the RNAV overlay and all the automatics helping. I don't think it is anything particularly to do with this crew's abilities. I can't remember when raw data NDB apprs' were taken out of our LPC/OPC's, but it was years ago and I'd frankly not elect to do one unless it was the only option.