I sympathise with 172D. I know exactly what it's like to hen pecked by an under confident git. When flying with those people, I used to let them fly. But I hope I'm not like that. I try to create an environment whereby my colleagues feel that they can hand fly whenever they wish. And after they have experienced my gash flying, they'll give it a shot just to prove they can fly better than me.
But I think one the problems with hand flying is the baggage that goes with it. Compare the serenity of a visual approach in Scandinavia with one performed at LHR. In the former, you dump the automatics, turn the Directors off and fly the plane and admire the view. At LHR, you are micro-managed in every aspect and just keeping up with the SOP calls and mouth music puts you in the 'dark green' zone. It's hard work. But the solution, not surprisingly is practice. The more you do it, the better you get. And it's the job of us line pilots to maintain ours and our colleagues' proficiency through practice.
PM