I converted nearly 20 years ago, in my mid 20's, while we had a racetrack right in the middle of the city. This was before the days of SMGs, PDKs, and MCTs, or even paddles for shifting where automatics didn't rev match, and sapped more power from the engine than a manual transmission (lockup torque converter helped). Everyone on beyond ridiculed me back in the day for going automatic.
I struggled with shifting with the left/right (or right/left in some cars) on the center console shifter, when to shift during hard braking, and when to rely on the transmission doing it's own shifting. Eventually figured out workarounds, and the automatic became my secret weapon of consistency on the road course and autox courses for me. Bonus was my commute to downtown was 100x more pleasant, remember this was decades ago, when Crowchild had no bridges, and every intersection was a traffic light. On a bad summer day with an accident, it would take nearly an hour to drive from Crowfoot to downtown in bumper to bumper traffic the entire way.
Eventually, SMG's came out. That was great, fast shifting, no power loss like a traditional automatic, but clunky as hell. Then dual clutches came along and improved the (slow) driving experience. Now, automatics with a wet clutch (MCT) and hell even the old traditional torque converter gearboxes are so good that there's almost no power loss compared to a manual. I like to think of myself as a pioneer, going full auto before these advances.