Interesting thoguhts.
To my mind, provided one is in current and fluent practice in IMC, then using the autopilot, even if single axis, is a good plan for phases of flight which are assisted by the equipment.
The reason for this is obvious - it is the diminution of effort which arises because the autopilot takes some of the workload.
However, what it does NOT remove from the pilot is the responsibility to maintain the monitoring (scan) of instruments in order to achieve the planned flight and to recognise abnormal situations.