Recurrent training for the highly automateds needs to contain circling approaches and totally manual flying more than having a power cut just after V1 every time.
Well, in the States, the circling approach has been eliminated both in the sim and in real life by most operators for a couple of decades now. A lot of crashes in the 'old days' were on these approaches even though the pilots were allegedly better in stick and rudder handling back then.
And, I do think you would be foolish not to turn on the autopilot in a widebody while doing one of those wacky UK departures with low level offs, low transition altitude, noise flyover points and three 8.33kHz channel frequency changes below 10,000 feet.
Still, sim training has indeed gotten away from the hand flying basics. You do have to check off a few regulatory items like the V1 cut but much of the time is now spent in 'scenarios' that have you drone along and make command decisions and fumble though checklists and simulate radio calls to maintenance and the other geniuses on the ground. A lot of other time is spent with so called 'route mods' where you try to get an FMS with an ancient user interface and perhaps a Z-80 processor to comply with a clearance that you will never see in the real world. I'm not saying this stuff is worthless but it does take you away from using the sim to freshen up on hand flying proficiency.
Of course, with the latest generation of airliners, you can't turn off all of the automation and many of the flying characteristics are in the software, not the raw aerodynamics. The MD-11 seems to be an early part of this transition with somewhat conventional controls but the too small horizontal tail compensated for by never ending revisions to the LSAS software.
I remember flying over Africa years ago with an old Pan Am pilot. He commented that hand flying would be come less important in the future and that we would become systems managers. For better or worse, he was right.