Despegue, regretfully I must completely disagree with your stance. We are not talking about erosion of basic flying skills and the need for occasional manual flying but normal day to day operations. Hand flying from LHR! Boeing FCTM section 1.34 777 deals with the advised use of automation whenever possible, I am unsure what books you are reading.. out of RVSM.. well, we often are below 290 for more than 25 minutes, not sure about hand flying a triple for this long... scary stuff.. keep it for the sim!