As a contractor for many years I have seen a lot of different ways of using the automatics. My conclusions:
-always using automatics is as wrong as always flying manual
-people who do a lot of handflying are still proficient in using the automatics
-people always using automatics are loosing their skills and are a danger without realising it
Use automatics when you have to or when you want to, but don't get to the point where you have to use automatics because you can't fly manual anymore.