I find this interesting, this is no critique, but it's interesting to hear different philosophies about this topic. In my outfit you either fly the flight director or you don't display it. Having the FD on the display indicates your intention to follow it's guidance and thus is a help for the non flying pilot to monitor the handling.
Part of my standard brief when flying with a new guy (someone I have not flown with before, regardless of experience): "If you want to do something non-standard, just brief me first."
FD is one of those things in my personal "nonstnadard" bucket... When on a visual, PAR, or VOR final, I will have the FD set via MCP to 800 fpm down. I use this as a reference point only (and I brief that to my FO), not clear direction. That gives me one more quick reference to a "nominal" rate of descent.
Every now & again you MUST resort to hand flying in order to land at all. Just yesterday going into CAtania Sigonella, Visual approach was the only option. ATC had us at 3000' until we got the runway visually. That was at about 5 miles. The autopilot is NOT going to get you down safely in a case like that! If you're not comfortable and proficient at hand-flying, you're no longer a good pilot.