so having regular exposure to such training (manual flight) isn't feasible in a now very cost aware industry
"A very cost aware industry" is surely the main reason we have simulators in which to practice our flying skills rather than use real aeroplanes.
Regardless of the many jet transport accidents that were proved to have been caused by the pilot losing control (in other words poor flying ability) - it is probable that even today, 90 percent of simulator sessions still involve making full use of the available automatics.
If you want to crew aircraft with pilots equally at home at pressing buttons/monitoring automatics or hand flying in IMC in a seamless transition from automatics to raw data hand flying, then why not teach them how to do that task in the simulator? It is not an insurmountable problem - except to those pilots who are so addicted to automation, that they are privately apprehensive of their own lack of confidence in their ability to fly an aeroplane.