After learning on a manual, and living with automatics for a good couple of decades, I intentionally got a manual again (a subaru). It's not super smooth. It'

After learning on a manual, and living with automatics for a good couple of decades, I intentionally got a manual again (a subaru). It's not super smooth. It's not the height of efficiency (yet still 5mpg better than the best of my automatics). But that's on me, not the car. It's a skill I can develop, and it's a skill I'm proud of developing. If I want to drive smoothly, I can. If I want to drive like a bat out of hell, I can do that too. And no, I can't really do the latter in my automatic CVT, at least not comfortably. Stepping on the gas to overtake causes it to downshift erratically (yes, a modern CVT emulates a manual transmission and downshifts), bringing me close to a redline before it shifts (again, WTF CVT?) back up to avoid the redline.