I say "snob factor" because there is a recognition among manual drivers (myself included) that they are driving something that not many people can drive properly today. When I'm going through the tricky shifting routine on my old Triumph, I admit to a sense of superiority because I know that it would be a hard task for the average, modern driver. Likewise, when I press down on the Trans Am clutch, I think that you need legs like a tree trunk because the clutch is so heavy...and I know not many people can stand up to the long term shifting of the TA.
The problem is, shifting today is really little more than an added and unnecessary layer of complication to driving.
The fact that driving a manual is not easy for some people does not make me a better driver and doesn't make my car a better performing car. It just makes me go through more steps to drive. A manual today is like extra chrome...it breaks the driver's basic tenet of form and function. It's more "stuff" that doesn't make the car more functional or the driving more efficient.
Manual transmissions put us in that exclusive club of people who can drive a manual transmission...but that doesn't impress me. I won't lie to you: I hope it impresses some of the girls I know 
but, in my heart, I know that it serves no purpose. I also have to ability to tune the old dual Stromberg carburetors on my Triumph every month. It's a rare skill but I'd still prefer the fuel injection on my 77 year old Mother's Optra (5 years old and running perfectly with no maintenance).
Its not that I don't understand your argument, you have explained it clearly in numerous ways. Its that I disagree with all variations and reasons of your theme. However all that means is people have different opinions. Mine is;
I could care less about all this exclusive club, impress others, snob, superior et al "obsessions". To me, this is totally irrelevant to the driving experience. All that "stuff" has to do with others and/or thinking about what others may (or may not - most don't care) think, and is simply distraction from the core subject! What about the ACT of DRIVING, first person style?
To me, other than steering and occasional braking, manual shifting IS driving. I've probably owned 40 cars, a few automatics among them however they didn't last long. The last attempt was a DSG because the hope was it would properly emulate a manual. Nice attempt, but nope, despite being better than most autos. tpl explained the problem best in his post; " My humble GTI DSC has a sport mode which tightens up throttle response and alters where the transmission changes gear, it does it rather badly as it happens." The problem shows up all the time in normal day-to-day driving, and its all about choice. The most annoying things are being in the wrong gear mid corner on out, the wrong timing for downshifts, taking anywhere from a half hour to an hour to shift to and from reverse and a forward gear (
), the gearbox upsetting the balance of the suspension. The ONLY things I can think of that an auto does (mostly) right are accelerating and achieving better fuel economy in real world situations, as its very difficult for a manual shift driver to create good fuel economy without thinking about it all the time.
Within 3 months, I talked my wife into upgrading to the Jetta that I bought, freeing me up to buy a manual! All because of the auto (as I still really like the Jetta 2.0T, and she does too). No expense spared to escape!
