One well known Middle East carrier boasted that they had added one extra hour per year of manual handling. What a laugh that was. In other words extra safety measures that involve simulator training are seen as a unnecessary cost impost.
There are well known EU airlines who have reduced the common 4 x 4hrs per annum = 16hrs to 3 days <16hrs per annum. Guess why? and it's not to improve capability. Strict SOP's adherence will negate the need for skilful handling; yet what we are often talking about is skilful management of the situation. This could involve skilful use of automatics, or god forbid, skilful dexterity. "The future's dark, the future's................??" anybody's guess.