Its not an artificial distraction. It has real implications on how your car works. Just because you are not shifting, doesnt mean the car does not shift. The extra control allows a user more control of the vehicle. It does require more skill and practice, but has a higher performance ceiling. There is a reason race cars dont use automatic transmissions. The best race cars dont have a clutch, but the driver is still in control of every shift.
Forced attention and distractions are different. Driving stick is more attention on the act of driving itself. Look at the research for self driving cars and expecting the drivers to pay attention. Its nearly impossible to pay attention to something that takes less interaction. Honestly, if you lack the hand eye coordination and multitasking ability to drive stick, i pray you never try to change a radio station or turn up or down the heater in your car.

[–] tomi000@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It wasnt artificial before, because there was no automatic shifting. It is now that its not necessary anymore. What youre saying is the more you control about your car the better. Cars do a lot of things the driver doesnt control, why would shifting be such a special exception? Why would you automate windshield wipers if you can just pull a lever every second? Why not start finetuning oil and cooling water while driving? Those wouldnt be considered distractions if there was no way to automate them, but since there is, its not necessary to make the driver do it. Im not saying it is a huge distraction and that it is super dangerous. Looking at your navigation system while driving isnt considered a distraction, but looking at your phone is. Why? Because it is not necessary for driving, just like shifting has become unnecessary by now.

Also your point with shifting in racing is valid, but actually just for racing. In everyday driving, your goal shouldnt be maximum performance but rather efficiency, and automatic shifting is way more efficient than humans could be.