SND - yes I think you are right.
I have scant regard for a pilot that can't fly the aircraft manually and HC has similar disdain for those that don't know the AP modes, submodes, degraded modes, FMS programming etc - the solution is somewhere in between as you suggest.
We both want the guys/gals in the cockpit to be as good as possible at their jobs, we just differ in our perspective since our jobs are/were different.