I suppose it's "horses for courses" but in our outfit we are encouraged to handfly the aircraft when appropriate ie when the traffic is light and the wx is good at a quiet airfield. Nothing wrong with that - nobody's forced to do it and those who do it regularly, definitely show up better in the sim in their handling skills than the lazy b*ggers.
I seem to remember the Gulf Air accident not a world away from said EK! A little handling skills in a routine 2-engined go-around would not have gone amiss methinks! Remind me NOT to fly with EK from now on. I'd like to think that when the bright shiny Bus ( or Boeing) decides to do its own thing, that at least one of the guys/gals up front could do something about it. They sure as hell aint gonna learn it in the sim in 4r hrs every six months.