Clearly, such are everyday ATC restrictions and company mandated procedures, it is a lost cause during line flying where full use of all automatics is invariably enforced and any transgressions quickly picked up by the QAR and the pilot carpeted and risks losing his job.
I simply don't recognise this at all from my own experience (although I have no doubt that is the case in some airlines/ cultures).
Our part A explicitly states that crew should take the opportunity to maintain their manual flying skills during normal line operations. I personally fly manually whenever appropriate (and for me "appropriate" is not just CAVOK calm at a quiet airfield!), and encourage my FOs to do the same.
If for some reason it all goes wrong, we can always go around, and nobody in the FDM team will bat an eyelid.