First my sim partner was a nice guy, and an excellent pilot. However this was particular during the JOC part of the course, and the instructor did not consider automatics was required for these parts of the sortie, and i totally agreed, however that AP would go on everytime, even though there was ample chance to do some proper handflying!
As also was mentioned, RyR and most other companies who assess you, want you to hand fly the machine, so spending nearly £4K, I would use every chance to hand fly the sim, instead of chicken out every time the stress level and workload was increased due to this. It was not excactly complicated to push on the AP when needed.
I mean doing an ILS approach pushing LOC, white for White Loc - Green Loc - Push APP - and sit and monitor the instruments, do that twice, and you know that like the back of your palm, let's get moving and have some fun, and do that ILS without Autos, and lets take away the ILS on the Nav display too!
I can sit and practise all night on the autos on MS PMDG 737 if I want for free!
By the way, when he did handfly, he wasn't bad at that either.
By the way, I know of guys doing their line training, being encouraged by their captains to hand-fly the approach, so it can't be that bad.
You should be able to multi-task, hand fly and CRM!