To add my two cents (and trying to be pragmatic)...I Love the track, I love to push my car on the track and if that is a good use of how I spent my money is my own business.  But how often can anyone, who is not racing for a profession get to the track.  I get there 6 to 8 times when in season.  I am sure a lot of you get there many multiples of this.  But there are few people buying a GT3 who are doing 180 days plus a year.  Therefore, you are buying a car that will be driven on and off the track.  To me, the manual transmission makes, Sunday drives more engaging.  I love driving a manual and am sad by the direction all car companies are going.  The idea that I would buy a different transmission to shave seconds off my lap time is not relevant.  If ever get to a point in my career when I can do more than 30 days at a a track in a year, I will buy a cup car or a pure racer.  

I am guessing my life style is relevant to more people on this forum than not, so it is hard to say.  Therefore, I disagree that people should say manual is an old technology because we are all trying to shave tenths of a second off our track time.  I think many of us still use our cars off the track and here the manual is more engaging for my dollar.