In practice experience pilots fly often fly the aircraft with the elevator in cruise flight in calm air. They know how much to tweak the trim to correct very minor altitude excursions just as they start to develop, or wind in just the right amount so the aircraft settles right on the glideslope.
However with respect to ab intio instruction it is important that students do not try to fly the airplane with trim as the inevitable result is they start chasing the airspeed and altitude with the nose nodding up and down and the aircraft never stabilized. Instead good instructors concentrate getting students to concentrate on recognizing and holding the correct attitude and then trimming the forces off so that the aircraft will fly hands off. Proper trimming is an important skill that should be practiced because if the aircraft is not in trim the aircraft will deviate away from the attitude you have set when you look away.