Centaurus;
Flight Directors are an aid to instrument flying. They are not the be all and end all to instrument flying. That said, experience has shown many crews are FD addicted and become apprehensive without them as a crutch. The inevitable result sooner or later is a close call or a crash.
Agree completely - (for the Airbus...the DC9/DC8 "directors" weren't sophisticated), I always thought that the most important use of FDs was, ironically, letting the PF know what the automation is actually "thinking", and I treated them as such...just a guide. FD's are best "looked through" to the other
actual data on the PFD, for verification of what these things are commanding one to do.
In my opinion, other than conveying what the automation is wanting to do, FDs are for best for small corrections when hand-flying, and one ought to be able to hand-fly (with autothrust off), a raw-data ILS, otherwise one is unskilled at flying a transport aircraft.
Of course one needs to be sufficiently experienced to know how and when to "look through" these things and not to slavishly follow dumb commands from a high-speed idiot, (computer); otherwise they're just a crutch that weakens S.A. and thought.