I like to interact with the car as much as possible, short of pumping the pistons myself by hand,.
To me it's just more enjoyable to be that involved with the car and have more control. It's also more of a personal challenge performance-wise, because you have to condition yourself to performing as flawlessly as possible and with coordination, not just put your foot down and flick a paddle/push a button. If you screw up, it'll cost you, which is how I think it should be. Instead it starts to come down to more machine and less man-and-machine. While those automated manuals and such can be fun and are excellent technological advances, it's really not for me, and I'm on the younger side of the scale. If I were that concerned with turning faster lap times I'd get a car that's dedicated to the track and gets trailered there and back rather than something I'd like to drive there and back home after the track day. I don't care about shifts that happen faster than my airbag can deploy, I want a clutch pedal and manual shifter.