Pilots are still doing a job, and sometimes that job involves keeping their skills fresh and honed, or working around a partially non-functional or degraded autopilot. Sometimes it's even a matter of personal preference, with some pilots preferring more hands on time than others.

I’m not sure if you’re disagreeing with me, so I’ll expand on the previous post: most commercial flights cruise at altitudes where it’s not allowed to fly without autopilot. Not for honing the pilots’ skills, not because of a malfunction.

There are parts of the flight where hand flying is allowed, but those are the parts closer to the ground (or on very short hops where the cruise altitude is significantly lower than usual).