The sad thing is that students and even pilots who are dependent on automation, don't really know it. They think they are just fine. When I was teaching, we had DA-40s with the G1000 and autopilot. Personally, I only allowed students to use it on a long cruise portion, and even then only once. Other than demonstrating and doing a couple of approaches with the autopilot, they never touched the thing.

That works well for me now. My current plane has no autopilot. That's one of the reasons I wanted to be assigned when I was hired. I knew I didn't have a lot of TT and wanted to keep developing my flying skills. Some day, I'll gladly let the autopilot fly, but for now, I'm happy to have to work and be better at what I do. I just worry that the next wave won't have that same desire, or worse, they won't realize they need it.