If you have to "pound frantically for a nonexistent clutch (and sometimes hit the brake...)" I guess you're not as good a driver as you think you are.
Speaking as someone who's driven stick construction equipment, military trucks, semis, little Toyotas in the Middle East, US, Brit and Canadian manuals, and automatic combat vehicles, construction equipment and American cars.
There are a small number of advantages to sticks. Automatics are superior in all other regards. If you really think you need to change gears, you just adjust revs accordingly...and as to the previous poster, if he can't get an auto to accelerate fast enough to avoid being hit in traffic, he should probably let someone else drive, before he gets squashed.