That's an interesting analogy, but really that's more like mechanical shifting vs Di2, or perhaps brifters vs downtube or indexed vs friction.

I have always preferred manual, not necessarily to "feel more directly connected", but to have a significantly simpler/lighter shifting system that saves gas (partly through less weight, but more significantly through making it easier to 'hypermile' by coasting 50+% of the time)

As for 5tens, my wife has a pair and loves them. I'm sure they are great, I know they're very popular among mountain bikers, but I've heard they run narrow, so I'm not going to even bother. (I did hear though that Adidas bought 5ten and used their stealth rubber compound on shoes for some other sport, and they might come in wide, that would be worth investigating)