American manual/stick driver here.
Manuals are cheaper, more responsive, lower maintenance than wet-automatics. So even here where automatics are common, knowing that my skill gap vs you is literally saving me thousands in maintenance costs is definitely a big portion of my superiority complex.
However, with the dawn of CVT automatics, this is no longer true. CVTs are nearly maintenance free, have instant response, ideal power delivery.
So technology has changed, but not everyone recognizes the new era of advanced automatic transmissions.
But I'll absolutely still look down on any old-style wet clutch / torque converter based automatic.