Interesting thread - it is strange that for the first real test that a professional pilot undergoes the A/P is not allowed.
Not that strange - the autopilot fails on my Airbus sim every 6 months
(the engines seem to as well mind you-both of them last time
)
I took my driving test in a manual - if I took it in an automatic that is all I could drive unless I retook my test.
Why stop at the autopilot - GPS has been mentioned. You could even get an Aircraft with flight directors and program the whole flight with a Cat 3 autoland
Additional aids will come to you eventually - but we need to make sure that we can fly without them. If they were guarenteed to never fail we would be out of a job and ATC would control aviation from the ground - but that is a different thread.