Tony Kern made an interesting point at a safety seminar I was lucky enough to attend once.
He compared airline flying to target shooting and suggested that to be an airline pilot you need to be able to 'shoot' about an 84. He said if you consistently shot 85 but never higher than an 88 you may think you're ticking all the boxes…… until that one day where if you don't shoot a 93+, you're going to die in a plane wreck. If you've never tried to shoot 93+ previously, what are your chances of doing it when you suddenly need to?
From that day on I resolved to do as much hand flying and be as accurate as possible all the time when the conditions permitted. Sometimes that means that I'm auto coupled to 100' (or lower). Other times I'm disconnecting at FL150. Sometimes it means in the sim hand flying a 100m vis approach once the rest of the session is completed or engaging in various other things designed to improve my scan, handling ability, etc.
We've taken the love of automation WAY too far. Don't get me wrong, it's a great tool in the arsenal but if we neglect our own stick and rudder skills then the day we need THAT tool to survive we're not going to be able to use it properly.