Here’s an article that explores pros and cons; https://www.nationaltransmission.ca/manual-vs-automatic/
Interestingly all automatic transmissions I used had a high and low drives, which can be used to down shift or up shift as needed. Also, many automatic transmission from middle or high end cars have a semi-automatic shifter to go up and down gears. Best of both world.
I think this debate will be useless real soon anyway, with EV not needing a transmission at all.