I think from the above that no-one disagrees that flying the aircraft through the automatics it at times the best and safest option, but, there are times when some hands on manipulation of the flight controls is ALSO prefectly acceptable. It's a matter of choice, in the past if you wanted to fly AP/A-THR/FD engaged ALL the time fine - it was your choice, now it is no longer.
And as for the FBW comment that the pilot is not connected to the flight controls - I've got a wireless mouse and it does the same job as my old wire one.