My company (also the accident crew's) has actually been trending away from The Highest Level of Automation and other such nonsense. The newest philosophy is that "Pilots Will Maintain Proficiency in All Levels of Automation...."
My last (MD11) sim ride I was given a takeoff in PANC with deferred autothrottles (!!!) on a VFR day (blue skies are never a good sign in a sim).
Out of 400' we were given a cargo fire. Mayday, request vectors back and current weather. Guess what - winds and runway closures meant a closed pattern to rwy 32 - and by the way, localizer inop!
So, essentially, a no-autothrottles trip around the patch to a landing with nothing but a VASI to help in the approach. I punched the end of the runway into the Fix page to give me distance to go, but otherwise it was pure pilotage.
So... maybe some can blame their companies, but at my company we are expected to know a little bit more than how to engage the magic.