An old hardware designer - 35 years ago - cautioned me that the more he "Murphy-proofed" his hardware, the more he contributed to raising a new generation of "bigger and better Murphies". Someone who has not experienced soft failures will have no idea how to prevent catastrophic ones.
The present thread is a corollary of his admonition, it seems. If I couldn't hand-fly the automated bird often enough to remain competent, I would be unprepared to handle the real thing.