ChrisN,
You are absolutely right first time. The controls are followed through "hands on" for just that eventuality. You really don't want the automatics failing at 50 feet whilst you sit back with your feet up.
As for this nonsense about automatic landings on all approaches, I recall a similar story doing the rounds of the naive and gullible a few months ago concerning a similar "insurance" requirement for the Airbus A380. For the uninformed an autoland can only be accomplished if the aircraft systems and pilot training and recency requirements are complied with, but much more importantly the runway in use must have an ILS system in full working operation. Many runways and indeed whole airports do not have such a facility and even those that do cannot constantly provide for its servicability.
If you try and autoland without these things it all gets very messy, ugly and expensive. These are not the sort of results insurance companies would really insist on !
