Beardy, I see your point, but even flying a short haul Airbus (which I did) you will lose basic handling skills very quickly due to FBW, autotrim and autothrust. Even if you switch it all (except autotrim of course) off, under Normal Law just point the airplane in the correct direction and let go of the sidestick, FBW will take care of the rest.
I thought that my flying skills on the Airbus were OK, but when transitioning back to a "real" airplane I found out that a lot of basic skills needed some brushing up. Airbus really makes your life a lot easier, but this indeed has it's price.