Autopilots were a luxury for my first three thousand so rarely available for minimums approaches. We didn't need them because we all could hand fly well. I don't think we should now say we only need programmers, not real pilots to fly airliners. A 15 year old kid can push buttons better than most of us.
AF 447 is one example of losing or never having hand flying skills. I hope with the new FAA rules the US will not go down this slide. Sometimes automation fails, now you need a real pilot.