Absolutely d'accord that the disdain of the (self-proclaimed?) stick-'n-rudder-elite toward the "button pushers" who have no idea about real flying somehow misses the boat. Indeed, system skills, aircraft knowledge, CRM etc. may well be more important than golden hands. Still, a pilot (whether LHS or RHS) not being able to comfortably hand-fly the airliners he/she usually operates, including being able to get such an aircraft gone astray safely back into the flight envelope is IMHO a rather sad and questionable state of affairs.