you became part of it the flight controls and throttles were just extensions of your human hands and feet and because automation was minimal, you never became dependent on it.
I agree. An airline pilot should be able/required to be able to hand fly the airplane to a high standard. As he should be able to understand and make proper use of automation.
In my opinion, the automatic system of the NG to get out of the approach mode without using TOGA is not user friendly. As De Facto pointed out, it can be done by either changing the LOC frequency or by turning off –both- the FD and AP.
Sometimes this procedure will have pilots struggling with selecting/deselecting FD modes to be able to follow FD bars. In the meantime there is confusion. In this case, it would probably be better to just hand fly the aircraft (pitch and power) without FD bars in sight and then have them on when one is comfortable.