and with regard to final approach and landing, we all do this (I hope) manually day in day out when conditions allow, which is 99% of the time. .... So what is the problem?
The problem is Mr New Management will not allow it.
Mr New Management is so petrified of an incident, and so convinced that automatics are safer, that they will not let us hand fly. So the hand flying is rusty if it is ever needed, and no extra sim-time is allocated to brush up.
The problem is management.