The localiser can be intercepted manually or automatically!
In my ride there's a LOC button - pressing it arms the localiser mode of the flight director/autopilot and, as long as you've set the aircraft up in a viable position to intercept, it'll do a lovely job. The APP button will track both the localiser and glideslope so, when combined with the autothrottle controlling the speed (set by the pilot), a fully automatic ILS approach and landing can be flown.
I like to hand-fly (I'm a pilot after all!) when I can (and it's appropriate) - in reality, this usually means hand-flyng the departure (still with a flight director giving cues though) until, say, 10,000 feet and hand-flying for the latter stages of deceleration/flap extension to landing. I've got rid of the flight director and autothrottle in the cruise, just prior to descent in to the London TMA and flown raw data but it's not the norm and would get some captains twitching with unease! Some captains I fly with like the automatics put in very early and taken out very late but they are usually few and far between. There are times and places to hand-fly to be fair though.
B&S