Sometimes, one longs for the olden days where, on the 737 for a complicated departure, one just turned off the box, turned off the F/D A/T and so forth ... set up the RMI picture or whatever rocked one's boat .. and flew off just like in a lightie ... can't recall ever getting terribly lost in the ensuing gyrations ...
In Australia, where we didn't have all that many international DMEs (as opposed to the far superior local Oz DME which is no more) the magenta line was, at best, a misleading work of fiction when the aircraft was away from the main cities so most of us paid not all that much attention to it ...