Guide or Fly?
Holding patterns may or may not still be required depending on traffic, weather or as required by ATC.
STARS and SIDS are all pre-programmed but the crew still have to check them for validity and accuracy and sometimes have to alter the constraints (crossing speeds, heights, times).
Most airlines encourage the use of the automation especially in the terminal area so the autopilot is on most of the time.
Whether you guide or fly the plane, it is the same thing to me.
Your friend has over simplified his training as I am sure that his simulator training involved lots of system failures and manual flying.
His line training would have been a bit easier as it is generally a normal operation seeing that you are burning expensive gas and have real passengers on board.