I tend to agree too. 95% of my driving is city driving, and I still prefer manuals. The stop-start thing I find easier in a manual because you can often just leave the revs constant, and use the clutch to control your speed, when the traffic is going stop - walking pace - stop - walking pace - stop. In an automatic, you’re having to shift from the accelerator to the brake and back constantly.
I used to drive an old beater automatic, and about thirty seconds from my front door, I’d come into a long, long line of traffic that was approaching a roundabout (rotary) at the top of a hill. The thing with roundabouts, as opposed to traffic lights or stop signs, is that the queue tends not to stop and start so much, but will move at a consistent crawl. This was really, really awful in my old car in winter, because the engine was cold, and at that crawl, and uphill, it kept wanting to conk out, but I couldn’t rev it any because it was an auto, and I’d run up the arse of the guy in front if I did. I couldn’t jam it into neutral and rev it, because of the hill and the crawling pace - I’d be rolling back within a second or two. So I had to sit at home and warm the thing up forever. In a manual, I could have bought some time with the clutch when I heard the motor about to die.