I will say this, you worry too much. The autos are not the auto trans your accustomed to 10 or`12 years ago. Used to be autos were mushy and acted like the vehicle was driving in sand. They are much tighter and more manual like no days. Add to that ALOT more reliability. I never hear any issues with the auto trans that are in either the superduty or the f150.
The advantage to a manual trans IMO was in the past they were simply just more reliable. If you have an auto thats just as reliable why not get it, unless its a mustang or corvette and you like to burn rubber every now and then. even then IMO when you get more than 5 gears in a hot rod its too much shifting and its not as fast as an auto.
