Gawd, airline flying must be boring as bat5h1t if you crack a woody about hand-flying a visual approach over the beach
Sadly, you're terribly close to the mark,
Ascend Charlie. With my employer, if I did a visual approach when an ILS - or
any instrument approach - was available, or if I (gasp!) hand flew an ILS when the autopilot was available, I'd be in for tea and bikkies with The Man the next day, as he - (I kid you not) - told us all when introducing the current 'highest level of automation at all times' policy: "The line is no place to practise your flying skills."
Back to the subject of the thread: on Christmas Day quite some years ago, Vienna gave me "direct to Timba", (the approach fix for 26L at Gatwick).