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I'd go so far as to say that some cars NEED an automatic transmission.
The last auto I drove was a 2018 Dodge Charger, just the base model with a 292bhp V6. The transmission in that was a ZF 8-speed, far & away the best auto I've ever driven.
With gearing so high that it's only doing around 1,700 rpm at 70 mph you need to change down several gears to obtain any meaningful acceleration - its favourite gear when "making progress" was third! With 8 gears available there's one for every occasion; changes were so smooth that I had to look at the indicator on the dash to see what gear it was in.
I did try manual shifting on a twisty road in Montana, but after a couple of miles I realised that if you've got a machine that can do the job better than you can, why make work for yourself.
The high gearing pays off in fuel consumption. Over 2000+ miles in conditions as varied as the Rocky Mountains & Seattle rush-hour traffic it average just over 26 mpg. That's puny little US gallons, around 31 mpg in full-size British gallons.
On the other hand, our current car is a DS3; I wouldn't want the auto version of that.
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