I am saying that despite pilots today being perceived to have less skill, we are in reality still much safer compared to the "golden-years" era some here like to reminisce about. And automatics is a large part of the reason why
But that is an obvious statement!! In the 50s racing a racing car was a death sentence with open wheels, sitting in a fuel bucket, no seat belts, crash structures etc.
Hardly a comparison to modern racing cars with all their driver aids and safety features.
But you still need a racing driver with the best skills and those skills will be needed when things go wrong with the automatics and take my word for it they do go wrong auto pilots included
With the advance of systems and automations there are still accidents where the pilots could have recovered the situation by solid piloting skills but didn't statistics or no statistics
The same goes for GA where the more automation the more needless accidents occur but I add that in GA those skills were never really learnt and some of the pilots used automation to cover a lack of skills a dangerous route to take
so not really sure what you are arguing ???