Originally Posted by
speedrestriction
Personally I would be more concerned about skill atrophy rather than reduction in the importance of the pilot per se.
How so exactly? As far as I can tell, (as a non-pilot*), it seems like even though most of the general cruising part of flight is done by automation, the rest, including the take-off/approach/landing are done manually by the pilots, right? I’m curious, which part (or parts) would be the victim of the skill atrophy here?