It is worth pointing out that although the use of AHT/Crew Hover in UK civilian SAR is part of the training requirement, the majority of winch operators will achieve their currency on drums without exploring the system's capabilities on wets or decks.
Many aircraft commanders would not expect their winch operator to do any more than deliver the hi-line were the system to be used on decks with the evolution flown manually once the hi-line is established. Should AHT/Crew Hover be used on wets, a significant number of winch operators would ask their pilot to provide the winching inputs (on the winch operator's command) as they do on drums, rather than overloading themselves with both aircraft control and winch operation.
AHT/Crew Hover is therefore not a well-used feature. The differences in approach between military and civilian SAR crews (detailed above), combined with the effectiveness of the AHRS-based autohovers, a lack of user confidence and some ergonomic challenges may go some way to explaining why the pilot retaining control appears to be the preferred method in the civilian world.