30+ years ago, I would have agreed with you whole-heartedly since the norm for a sports - or any - car is a manual box. It left the (then) standard auto box for dust and most learners in the UK would have preferred it anyway since they have taken their driving tests in a car with a manual gear change!
But times has moved on and so has road- and driving conditions in the UK and elsewhere.
Automotive technology has also come on in leaps and bounds since then; and now, with auto boxes offering 5, 6 or more gears, that has surpassed the manual transmission which had reigned supreme for many years. Add to that, the automated manual (paddle shift) transmission has already entered its 4th generation, pushing the traditional manual box further down the line!
But the paddle shift is not confined solely to high-performance sports cars; and certainly, has already started to be fitted to 4x4's like the Mitsubishi Pajero/Shogun. So where does that leave the manual box?
Speaking for myself, I've moved ahead with the times and with the technological advances on offer. The manual gearbox is probably best left to the die-hards who won't settle for anything else!
