Unlike a car, flying a large aircraft manually is not condusive to resting ones arms on the armrests, regardless of what type of control is fitted. I remember the Britannia's unpowered controls needed quite a bit of muscle from the shoulders down to initiate turns at even modest speeds. The powered controls in the DC8, B737/757/767 were relatively heavy and needed more than wrist action to fly for any length of time. I'm sure I didn't rest my elbows on the armrests when holding control wheels during hand flying. The geometry just wasn't right.