If you choose to use the auto-pilot all the time, I can guarantee your skills will erode
Willit,
Too many operators take the decision out of the pilot's hands; either by formal SOPs outlawing handflying or by subtle disapproval of it. Of course, under-confident (read, under-able), commanders will not 'allow' their P2s to fly by hand. (Long ago, when an overworked management pilot, I flew far too little, perhaps once a month. My skills were eroded, but crucially, when I realised, I did more hand-flying, not less, and got back on top of things. I recovered my ability. I suspect many don't, or don't feel they can; I did, because I was 'management'!)
The 'choice' is more complex than you infer.
Years ago, aircraft crashed because pilots coudn't navigate them. The answer was EGPWS. Now, they crash because their pilots can't fly them.
What a tragedy that the opportunities presented of late for accident investigators to probe this have been dismissed through absence of competence or will (AF447 and its cousins, TK1951 and its cousins, etc).