I love driving stick and I've done so with all my cars...but I'm okay seeing it go. I'd prefer the options to be more environmental, and there are other joys in life. It's not good to be attached to such things.
As you say, the EV has smooth, instant power available all the time, and good "engine breaking". The only thing it's missing is the nostalgia of winding through the gears and the symphony of the engine, exhaust, and drivetrain. But the smooth, powerful acceleration, is there in the EV.
Driving ICE manual is the whole package. Engine sound, the manual interaction, the little jerk when you miss the rev on shift, feeling of all the mechanics when changing the gear, feeling the vibrations thru the chassis when you accelerate, engine going braaaaAAAAAP and screaming like angry bees when going past VTEC threshold etc.
And the little details like how the notch on the first gear in my Civic ('07 Type-R) becomes lighter when the gearbox oil heats up and the whole rest of smaller idiosyncrasies of mechanical system.
For me the fun is man understanding and controlling machine, it is gone the moment machine pretends it's something it isn't. Not saying electric wouldn't be fun, just that I hope it will be its own type of fun instead of fake.
My car is a bit raw tho, spins to 8.6k RPM and have pretty hard suspension. Typical ICE car isn't exactly that "talkative" and is much more mushier around the edges.
But it is a bit funny to me that if you want high revving NA engine your options are 15+ years old Hondas or top of the line Porsche...
I agree though, nothing quite like a small 4 banger revving the moon.
If you want to feel "connected" to a modern car you are out of luck. It won't happen. Adding fakeness to compensate is ultimately unsatisfying.
I can absolutely tell you that. It sounds stupid and burdensome.
And in terms of effectiveness, it's basically homeopathy, or healing candles.
Fast forward 15 years and I'm surprised when I see a stick shift car - primarily (very) old taxis/ubers.
It's probably partly because disposable income is higher in London, but also because those with less money have better alternatives (good public transport) so don't own a car, or own one but don't use it much.
> 62.4% of new cars sold in 2021 were automatics, up from 24% in 2011 [1]
> A number of car makers offer only automatic gearboxes across their ranges, with no models from Mercedes, Genesis, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lexus, Maserati, Rolls-Royce, Subaru and Volvo being available with manual transmissions.
[1] https://www.carwow.co.uk/news/6414/automatic-gearboxes-becom...
Here I feel like most of the new cars I notice are either automatic or EVs too :)
But if electric motorbikes become usable and affordable to me within my lifetime, they will offer different pleasures (ubiquitous torque, quiet). And outside of driving/riding, there will be enough pleasures to experience and skills to learn for many lifetimes.