...when I bought the (Ducato) motorhome, I had the choice of identical models, but one with the automated manual (the inaptly-named Comfortmatic) and one just straight manual. As our two cars are both auto (one TC and one DCT) I strongly considered the automated manual, but it appeared that it was "marmite", and the reviews from people I knew and trusted were not encouraging, so I went for the manual.
I subsequently had two sessions in NZ, both with a motorcaravan. The market there is almost exclusively in auto-boxes. The first was a Merc, where the base vehicle was fine, but the conversion very Antipodean. The second was on a Ducato with the Comfortmatic box, a German-built import where the conversion was much more to our liking, The Comfortmatic box was, however, a complete abomination. Fine when tootling about on the straight and flat (where one doesn't have to change gear much anyway), but absolutely dire on twisty and/or hilly roads, being always in the not-quite-right gear.
Interestingly, when I did my original research, even the most positive reviews indicated that one had to "work-around" those deficiencies, largely by nudging it up or down a gear yourself. My experience was, particularly on hills (and with the "hill mode" engaged to putatively make it better) that manually nudging down caused the box to change down, think for a few seconds, decide "you didn't want to do that" and change up again, only, several seconds later to decide "Oh, you did want to do that!" and change down again - but by this time the revs had dropped off enough to make it really struggle.
Now, there are times when I'm quite happy to interfere with the box myself, but they are few and far between, and generally for my own reasons, not because I have to. I want an auto-box to function without intervention, and for me not regularly to have to intervene to overcome its shortcomings. If I was happy with that, I'd buy a manual and save money.
The current XC40, and the previous X1 were "interference-free" (the same Aisin 8-speed TC box). The Smart (with a 6-speed DCT) is rather less forgiving - though you can learn to drive around the shortcomings using the throttle only.
(Incidentally, the Ducato Comfortmatic appears to have been quite problematic, particularly in the motorhome market, and is no more. The current auto-offering is a 9-speed ZF TC box - which I might have been tempted by if it was around when I bought).
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