Yellow Pen,
I over egged. The flight director must now be on for take off and initial climb out. It may be off for an ILS if conditions are suitable, and will be off for hand flown visuals.
However with the level of inexperience we now have, not many captains will be so happy at the thought of a <500 hour pilot flying a raw data ILS, when most approaches and landings with a full house of aids can be just a tiny bit "variable".
We have an industry wide reputation for having an excellent training department. However we (like many other airlines) now refuse to recruit experienced first officers, and restrict ourselves to Seneca -> Airbus low hour contract first officers. Hence my point - many recent Airbus pilots may have no experience of flying a jet on pitch and thrust alone.