> Or how about just being able to anticipate the power band around a corner? Being able to downshift on a hill without thinking about it. Those are things you don't even realize you do in a manual, that you do.

You can do that in an automatic, too. Reach over to the gear selector, move it from D to a lower gear.

I can honestly say I don't give a shit whether I'm driving a manual or an automatic. I don't really think about gear changing in either.