Changing down a gear on the motorway @ 70mph - to overtake seamlessly is nonsensical (interestingly with my Roadster - you certain don't have to do that) and being in 4th or 5th "just in case" also defeats the objective?
I suppose it must also depend on what one feels the 'objective' is? The way I see it, a manual gearbox is a torque selection device, allowing you to choose the appropriate amount of torque available for the situation in which one is driving. Thus each gear should have (in theory) a set of circumstances for which it is best suited, and if those circumstances change then the gear selection should also change to suit those new circumstances. Hence to go from low-revs cruising to moderate revs acceleration one would expect to change gear, and the more acceleration/revs one wanted the bigger the change - so 6 to 4 when one wants a big burst on the motorway for example seems entirely right and proper to me. My see my 4/4's 5 speeds as:
1. Pulling away
2. Trickling through town
3. Max acceleration, B road fun, A road overtaking
4. Moderate acceleration, A road cruising, Motorway overtaking
5. Motorways and dual carriageway steady state, general bimbling
I'd quite like a 6th gear to drop the revs down another 500rpm or so at 70mph, but I'm used to it now after 20 years
My old man could never get his head around this concept, his thinking was that the gearbox existed solely to allow him to progress until he got into top gear, at which point he expected to leave it there without ever changing gear again until he came to a stop.
But you're absolutely right, it could well be that the automatic version is better suited to many people's driving styles and would give a much better driving experience. And as for the 'ugly' auto selector? I'd just put a tweed sock over it if it really bothered me that much :-)
