Unfortunately, much as the
weathered old sea captains like to pretend otherwise, not using the autopilot
does matter, simply because no matter how fantastic a sky god you are, having an AP (I mean a working one, not one of the rubbish ones which MJ has apparently been flying with in those barely airworthy scrap heaps) reduces cockpit workload by an order of magnitude.
That in turn means you have time to think and work out what to do. You are better placed to evaluate trivia like the missed approach procedure and the diversion options. The Irish crew where probably knackered through the hand flying in crap wx and were keen as hell to get on the ground.