Rote use of autobrakes when operationally unnecessary
Training foreign crews from different countries in the 737 simulator it was observed that without exception everyone used the auto-brakes for all landings regardless of runway length. Not one pilot used auto-brake setting 1. Autobrake setting 2 was the favourite even with runways of 10,000 ft length. Others used autobrake 3 with runways of 7000 ft. None considered manual brake landings. Even with 30 knot HW component on a 10,000 ft runway, pilots were still selecting autobrake 2.
The very nature of the brakes coming on at the moment of touch down means heat build up in the brakes. Surely this is undesirable? From ab-initio days it was considered poor airmanship to apply the brakes immediately on touch down (unless stopping distance was critical, of course) because wear and tear is increased and the brakes can get hot.
It is known that spoiler operation and reverse thrust will alleviate the brakes which back off while maintaining a set decelleration level. But why use autobrakes when they are simply not operationally needed? Lazy habits, maybe? - designed to cover careless flying in terms of excess speed and height at the threshold?