There are those - not me BTW - who don't like or trust autopilots, usually because they were trained on basic (or old) helicopters and were never taught to use them or never bothered to learn.
It wouldn't be a surprise that he was flying completely manually if he was one of those.
I agree completely and always wondered this. Another option is Auto Trims off SAS on. Pretty stable for VFR flight but doesn’t interfere with hand flying.