But then I do not know the Airbus as I am a Boeing man.
And I'm an Airbus man who's busting his nuts to get back on
a Boeing!
About the 320 AT - there are some safety items built into the
system to prevent yer average 200-hour child of the magenta
line from killing himself. Since SOPs cater to the dumbness of
the lowest common denominator, some outfits require the AT
to be on even for manual flight.
Fortunately the mob I work for doesn't have a firm policy on
it also, other than use that amount of automation suitable for
the task.