My company forbids turning the FD off under normal operations unless rearming it when visual on a non precision approach
The FD is purely an aid to navigation - it is not the be all and end all of flight safety. There are those that insist on use of the MAP mode at all times even though an EHSI will give you far more reliable navigation information. The MAP is very pretty of course but so is a WAC series chart which is basically what the MAP mode represents. I was surprised recently to read that Alteon in Brisbane rely so much on automatics during endorsement training that most landings are auto-land despite the fact that 98% of landings in Australia are manual. This policy ill equips new pilots to learn how to fly a 737 in the real world.
It is good to read in these pages that there are operators out there that actually encourage their crews to keep fully current at manual no FD and no AT approaches and landings. These are the safe pilots when the chips are down in contrast to the automatic monkeys who rely blindly on the automatics because they sadly lack the basic skills to fly an aeroplane. The Garuda 737 fatal over-run is a case in point.