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Anyone who tells you to manually set everything in photography is silly. I took a photography class and made sure to thoroughly read a professional photographer's breakdown of my camera and how to operate it.
The only reason I've seen suggested why you should use manual mode is if you want a very specific shot that the automatic settings won't allow you to get. You know, like everything else. Automatic modes (i.e. aperture modes mainly) are there for a reason and while it's good to know how to manually set your parameters and read the light meter, you realistically don't want to be fiddling with your camera while whatever subject you want to photograph is potentially changing (for portrait or still shots its not as bad, but if you need to do any form of quick shooting you're only hampering yourself). Do I still use manual mode sometimes? Of course! I was taught how to use it and when I need it it is extremely helpful. But I typically only need it for night photography or if I want a specific effect (which can often be achieved with shutter mode but I never really use that).
I use manual when I'm shooting RAW and want to get better control for shutter speed. I like to run under exposed settings between one or two steps since I can just up the exposure just fine in post but I can get much more consistent focus in less than ideal lighting.
I can't speak for newer cameras, though. As the last camera that I used is released on 2012. The auto settings on that camera (Pentax K5-II) is atrocious.
That's fair. My camera (Nikon D300) is from 2007 but it functions wonderfully and the auto settings are usually very good, with me only having to adjust the exposure or white balance occasionally.