I still think the Cirrus coaxes pilots ill equipt to fly in conditions they should not be in and think a lot more emphasis should be put on basic handling skills
Pace,
I think you've hit the nail on the head. My limited experience in the Cirrus (1.5 hours, three airports, three takeoffs and landings and one ILS) led me to the same conclusion. The main purpose of my flight was to see how the EFIS and autopilot worked, but I did enough manual flying to agree with Jonzarno that it is easy to fly.
However, while being coached on how to use the electronics, or more often, watching my instructor pushing buttons,when things got busy (Los Angeles area), it struck me how simple it all was (assuming I had the 15-20 hrs training). We turned on the autopilot after departing Avalon on Catalina Island and left it on until the ILS DH at Burbank. Never touched the controls, apart from the power lever.
I saw how easy it would be, particularly for an owner with no previous aviation experience, to be lulled into a false sense of security, which might leave them in a difficult situation in the event of a critical failure or a serious weather problem.