I cannot begin to even imagine the sheer tedium of hand flying an a/c for six wearisome hours in clag and all the while not taking your eyes of the panel scan.
I guess it's a matter of what you have to fly, and what you're used to. I used to hand fly two or three hour legs home, hard IFR, at night, often in winter icing, while my exhausted Captain "relaxed". I can't say I enjoyed it, but I signed up to fly, and that was the flying. The Aztecs did not have auto pilots. If I wanted to get home (let alone the employer expectation), the plane had to be hand flown. And, to be clear, that was old school panel - no HSI, no RMI, no RNAV... EFIS and GPS? Not thought of yet... It can be done, and was common "back then"....
Perhaps the basis of perception is different now....