Let me venture into the lions den. Automation has made all our lives safer and easier in many fields and is here to stay.
Rainboe is of course right, there are certain things that are so basic that they should never be lost sight of. There can never really be an excuse for this.
On the other hand it does seem, from all the comments here that in highly automated multimode systems, mode confusion can be a serious problem for the operator, particularly in unusual situations.
In mode A then X, Y and Z are attended to, in mode B, X and Z but not Y, in mode C, X alone and so on.
This demands constant full awareness of the current mode, what it does, when it will transition to another mode and why, and what will happen when assorted inputs are degraded either individually or together.
I would venture that such constant awareness while monitoring the automatics is less "natural" than the immediate focus of hand flying where matters may be more predictable and immediate.
But obviously this is part of a modern ATPL pilot's training.