Blacksheep,
We must never forget that we are pilots, and NOT slaves of the autopilot and F/D.
The Flash Air crash last year is the perfect example of loss of situational awareness, blind trust in automatics and a general situation of being out of contact with the aircraft.
We are pilots and should be able to fly our aircraft smoothly and accurately. I come from an airline ( a Eastern European LCC) where A/P was mostly used as soon as possible and where raw-data was unheard of. Now, I fly with ex-Sabena and Sobelair collegues and I've only now started to learn to FLY the aircraft, not only manage it. Before, I followed a cross, actually moving the controls on the B737. Now, I learned to work with pressure. Smoothli give pressure on the controls to manipulate, that is all. FEEL what the aircraft is telling you, you won't be able to do this when following magenta crosses or V-bars. And if someone doubts about the sanity of the Belgians, you all now pretty well that SN and SLR had the reputation to be one of the safest around, and their crews among the most competent and best trained. I used to be afraid of raw-data and that is ALWAYS a bad sign.
Obviously, we DO use A/P and all the management systems whenever this will actually enhance safety. That is pure airmanship. IMC conditions will be flown in F/D or A/P mode, the same goes for extremely busy environments.