'Rexy' that's interesting that Airbus are considering such a move when there is already a warning in place when the speed gets too low by way of 'Speed Speed' being screamed out, that ought to be enuf to wake up the driver/s.
Automation has it's place I mean we now live in a very automated world in pretty much everything we do, some in place as we are the laziest species on the planet these days & the other in place under the umbrella of 'safety'.
We started out with SE Bi-Planes as the main flying machines (yes I now there where multi's as well), we then progressed to Mono-planes with multiple power-plants all for safety. Modern materials, Multi crew, redundancy systems, heating, cooling, pressurization, navigation all for safety/comfort & the last area where safety is now paramount & going full steam ahead is auto-flight systems & this is where we are today.
I think understanding the Auto Flt system is more important these days due the complexity of it all.
Personally I don't enjoy manual flight anymore oh I used to but it's just a job to me now although it's not rocket science I see little point in making it harder for ones self than it need be. The cyclic Sim stuff shows area's of weakness, in flt is not the place. As has been mentioned most Co's would rather you use the highest level of automation commensurate with the stage of flight.
Wmk2