I definitely agree. The only reason you'd ever use an autopilot on one of those on-top setups would be to find the approach plate you need. Otherwise you are wasting your time. When I was instructing and things were slow, I definitely flew our sim a lot. Even though it couldn't be logged, it was still good practice, and the benefit you get is not the time but the proficiency. Make it tough on yourself though. I always configured the sim as the fastest, most complex aircraft it would simulate. Then I'd set it to randomly fail stuff. It will help you a lot. Oh, and one more thing: fly approaches that you aren't instructing everyday.