> Taking down the lesson/lecture does relatively little
Not my experience.
> you can do it on autopilot
Huh, that sounds magically to me, I certainly can't. Actually taking notes down does the opposite, it forces you to get out of the autopilot, because you must think about the content.
Taking notes down, helps you learn better, because you use way more brain areas to process the information. Instead of just hearing, you need to hear it, understand it, try to rephrase it in your own words, use you motoric skills to write it down, and then see it and the placement of element on your page.
> we were given digital lecture notes anyway
Which you don't learn anything from, because by downloading you processed exactly none of the content yourself. Yeah they are way better to eventually search the information later on, if you already no the topic, but for learning you need to start with understanding it and structure it in your brain, which you would have already done for the first time, if you have taken notes.
> but there were no typed notes to start with so it was just out of necessity
The necessity was created by the teachers in order to get the students to learn. It didn't fell down from the sky.
> Or summarising notes in your words.
Which is what you do, if you take down notes. And that on a real time loop, so you can't slack down or miss something, because the information won't come again.