Automatics just aren't smart (or crazy) enough to predict what I might do next...
's are worse, because they can get stuck trying to go the wrong way to what I want to do, if the timing is off. Traditional autos were actually better sometimes for sudden change of mind situations.
Besides... the manual trans just does what it's told. I can also strip it down and fix it. I've never had a manual transmission "mechatronics" failure myself... though a guy at work did break his arm recently
Traditional autos get less confused by the sudden change of mind, but they still don't predict whats coming up next - I live on a road that goes up and down and around and around, hubwise and widdershins... it'll decide to change up on the downhill, but there is an uphill 1 second later. You have to drive in manual mode to make it work properly... so why not just have a proper trans?