I am an amateur photographer and have been for over 10 years. I strive to learn manual modes but I find that I don't always know how the camera should be set up. I have taken thousands if not tens of thousands of photos for all the trips I've been on and edited these photos and then made photo albums. I must admit that the auto mode has done me well. Not only am I happy with the results but every time I show my photos and albums to others I get many compliments. I know that I am not an expert and the professional can see so many more discrepancies than I can see, but to the 98% of the people out there who are not experts, who just enjoy seeing a nice picture, the auto mode really works for me. I still experiment with manual modes, especially for depth of field issues, but when I travel or see something I want to photograph I go back to the trusted auto mode and rely upon Lightroom or Photoshop to help get the final results.
Just my opinion but there are many non professionals out there who I am sure get confused as I do with auto vs manual modes. If you take photos for a living or use your camera every day then getting total control of your camera is certainly the way to go, but if you put your camera down for periods of time to enjoy other things in life, then enjoying auto mode when you pick it up to take those pictures really seems to work.
Just my opinion, but 10 years of taking photos has some worth.
Mike

You're not inappropriate. I'm just an amateur, so I hope I'm not putting myself at risk.

As far as ethics go, I eventually settled on the Olympics procedures to govern my workflow. That basically means I start with SOOC JPEG, and then limit myself to certain basic operations - insuring the image is plumb {respects gravity}, minor adjustments to color levels, minor sharpening, and cropping.

This relates to this thread because I need to be close SOOC. Given time, I can spend many minutes choosing perspective; once I have chosen shutter speed to stop motion and aperture to give sufficient DOF, I want exposure to be as correct as I can get it. The photograph of the dragonfly presents special challenges - its length demands small aperture, but its motion demands high shutter speed, and focus needs to be right on. Not knowing where it will land, and its tendency not to stay anywhere very long puts a strain on manual adjustments. I tend to use 'P' mode, because my Pentax camera allows me to make last second adjustments, adjusting shutter speed by flicking my forefinger off the trigger to the front 'e-dial' and adjusting aperture with my thumb on the rear 'e-dial'. Once I get a KP, which seems to handle high ISO settings very well, I will experiment more with 'TAv' mode, which is like 'M' mode, but the camera adjusts ISO setting to make my other settings work.

We pay mega bucks for the latest camera with more computing power than a Moon-Lander and Auto Mode is disdained ?

Do you have an " Auto " car, or do you use a manual gearbox?................ Which drives the car most effectively ?

Are you in danger of missing the shot while fiddling with the settings ?

Washing machines, computer controlled CNC,...... Micro surgery the list is endless where the computer wins out.

Perhaps in years to come you will be able to program your drone to go to your favourite locations, take the photos

and return them to you to process in PhotoShop,

Coming from a history of manually cocked shutters, flash-bulbs and slow film speeds,graduating eventually to a Zenith SLR

(now that WAS manual) First SLR with TTL metering I am hugely impressed by the programming power and facilities offered

by a modern camera.