The practice of "engage otto" at 300 feet with gear up and the reverse when landing bugs me beyond anything. I don't feel all should be Chuck Yeager, but if we can't fly the profile without using otto, then we should not be flying at all. I used and expounded otto for a few thousand hours in single-seaters to reduce workload when wx or other problems arose. But I never flew a profile that I had to use otto versus my own skills/eperience, and remember that otto has ZERO experience.
Gums has it right. When are the beancounters gonna wake up and figure out that the fuel savings from flying otto all day long, are gonna bite you the day otto decides to quit?
And that is the route cause of those disasters. It does not matter if your flying a Boeing with jokes that move in unison or an Airbus with sidesticks. What you practice is what you get good at, and if you never practice manual flying skills (by that I mean Stick (yoke), rudder and throttle, and not just dialing a heading and VVI rate on the panel upfront while using auto-throttle), you are gonna suck at it the one time you really need it.
Practice as you fly - fly as you practice, and not only once a year in the sim.