I'll add my experience to the mix. I'm an ex-cadet. I joined my first airline from a three letter flying school with 200 hours or thereabouts, straight onto the 320/1. The airline I joined didn't actively ban manual flying, but I wouldn't exactly say that it was encouraged by either trainers or the majority of line captains, although there were notable exceptions. In three years there, I probably flew fewer than five approaches with the auto thrust off. It was something that I simply wasn't very comfortable doing.
I made the decision to move to my current (large loco) airline after three years, and found myself in a different type of environment. In my base, manual flying seemed to be the norm. The company states in the OMs that manual flying is encouraged and should be regularly practiced. Manual flying was even a line training item during the company OCC. I forced myself to move out of my comfort zone, followed the lead of my captains and started flying more and more approaches with raw data, and with all of the automation switched off. The result is that now, four years later and a captain myself, I'm arguably more comfortable flying an approach with everything switched off than with all the magic working. Indeed, I sometimes choose to fly an approach to minimum with all the automation engaged to practice using the automation!
There are still some pilots who are very nervous about manual flying, thinking that they are going to get hauled over the coals for making a mistake while hand flying. Certainly in my current company, I'm not sure where the attitude comes from. I have personally never heard from the FDM team, and don't know anyone who has for an FDM occurrence related to hand flying. If you screw up an approach (which we can all do), you go around, file an ASR, and that's the last that you will hear of it. Nobody will be blamed for messing up an approach and going around, regardless of the level of automation they were using.
To touch on a point raised regarding 'excellence' vs. seniority: here, command is something that you have to apply for. It's not a case of waiting for your number to come up and being granted a course. I applied and took my command way out of seniority. The failure rate is very high at each stage of the five stage process, and suitability for the role is recognised and valued. Everyone talks; everyone knows who the good (and bad) FOs are, and management and training actively solicit the opinions of line captains when considering someone for command. Merely 'adequete' training records are definitely not enough; to move beyond the very first stage of the assessment process, a release from the training department is required, and the decision whether to grant the release or not is contingent on your training records being above standard.