Most all the pilots I went through my career with did just fine with no autopilot or if they flew a B737 200 as I did used it for climb, cruise and descent. As more and more automation became available some elected to use it to fly an ILS but most hand flew the ILS to maintain their currency so as not to rely on automation to fly their plane.
My airline did not require using automation unless the approach required it. That was ten years ago. Reading posts here I see some airlines require automation most of the time. A lot of foreign airlines start from ground zero teaching automation. Time will tell where this leads us.