westhawk explained it very well. Automation is good as long as the pilot doesn't need it because of his lack of basic flying skills. The only way to maintain those basic flying skills is to practice them in the airplane when conditions are right. We all know the sim check is filling the squares with 10 minutes at the end to play.
I always flew up to 10,000 and down from 10,000 manually and so did most of my FO's in a 757. If you give up your basic skills to let the autopilot do it for you, you have given up as a pilot, and have let your employer take over your career for good. Don't let that happen to you. Yes, they can hire cheap pilots with low experience to fly with automation but what happens when the automation fails? How many more examples do we have to show everybody?