I’m not all that bothered on the open road, well apart from bloody newer Daf’s with Arsetronic that is which keep defaulting to bloody eco…is that the most frustrating thing or what 
…but in my particular job we have a few maneuvers at regular drops that really show the strengths and weaknesses of autos versus manuals, mainly how the clutch engages and whether in autos in M (maneuvering not manual) mode the clutch locks up, as it does on the latest Scanias during even the harshest pushing, which is a real clutch saver as it doesn’t allow the clutch to disengage at all until you hit the brake pedal or the vehicle stalls (not happened yet)…good bit of protective anti wear engineering that Scania, well done.
Its a case of before you even start the reverse dumping the mid lift air and switching off TC/ASR to ensure any loss of drivewheel traction didn’t cause a power cut leading to clutch release, so meaning having to re-engage the clutch again, and a full head of air before you start helps too.
The delivery i’m referring to is a blind side jack knife up a steep incline off an already uphill reverse from a one way street, fully loaded @ 43+t as you would expect, it puts the vehicles through hell at this drop, we’ve had clutches destroyed there when someone didn’t take the correct aforementioned actions to help the vehicle, there is no option but to get in due to where the silos are located.
One youngish bloke struggled there for over 20 mins with the vehicle losing traction leading to the power being cut and having to restart many times, but to be fair to the bloke when he spoke to me about it he listened and took in the advice on how to make life easier the next time he goes there.
Those lads who go offroad regularly i have no doubt do these and other pre preparations all the time, though obviously you wouldn’t dream of using diff lock at the drop i’ve described.
Even in a manual vehicle or one of the latest autoboxes (i’m yet to try a ZF Traxton), it’s still prudent to dump the mid lift air and turn TC/ASR off anyway to give the vehicle the very best chance of making a reverse in one hit if the going is tough, each unecessary restart takes its toll on the whole drivetrain.