Point being that there is value in the abstraction, people value it, people pay for it. I know how to use a stick shift and I'll still pay for automatic for the ease of use.
Though for one who is experienced driving a vehicle with a manual transmission, a lot of the actions become second nature, meaning that it's not really more or less difficult to use. The only time a manual transmission vehicle is arguably more difficult to drive is in stop and go traffic, but I've handled that by maintaining a larger following distance and trying to maintain pace at idle speed in first or second gear.
