A37575,
However much I find what you wrote above to be absolutely amazing it's beginning to dawn on me that I can't just keep shrugging those stories off as exaggerated or bar stories. I have no training experience except for single engine piston so personally I haven't seen anything like what you describe above. But I take your word for it.
I come from a country with a very traditional flying culture. We fly manually in good and in bad weather. Personally I try to maintain an acceptable level of raw data + no map display flying as well.
Up until quite recently I thought this was how most other pilots still fly. I too have heard the stories of total AFDS dependency in large airlines but it didn't quite dawn on me how far that would/could go until I started reading PPruNe...