Ibtl
I own a 7 AT and I can see both points. Yeah manuals and definitely more fun and yeah the Auto feels sluggish when it's in auto mode but there are just some days where I'm like thank god I don't need to shift (bad traffic or just lazy). But yes, the 7 AT is a kickass auto transmission and the paddle shifters work great.
Thanks for posting your experiences, now we'll just wait for the AT vs. MT war