While I deliberately killed the only auto plant I grew I can understand your preference for something other than an auto-flower.Personally I prefer the control of manual.
To carry the analogy even further the 'modern manuals' have been improved so much over the past 15-20 years that they still out-perform everything that has been to to the super-duper improved automatic. The hydrophilic clutch is so sweeeeet even with my worn out knees.
Can you imagine how boring it would be if Steve McQueen was shifting some run-of-the-mill automatic trans Mustang in Bullitt instead of a real 6-speed manual.
By the way, the car is said to now be worth over $3.5 million. The cars in the chase scene were real, it was actual real life driving, sometimes stunt driving, at the genuine speeds needed and none of the special effects that other directors and actors might have used.