I am almost 100% manual but I still have a few authors I support in auto mode. They do not write so often, max 3 time per week or so and some of them do not even use the POB tag or are in the POB community so votes are cast on HIVE or other communities. Other than that I vote manually what I found(and like) searching posts for my contest.
I do also have some accounts following my vote in auto-mode. The account I made for my son(kind of a bank account on the blockchain ;) ) some years ago and the account of my girlfriend. This accounts are very small fishes so is not that they make much difference in the distribution of rewards.
Yeah I understand the need to want to support writers that you enjoy automatically.
Love the account for your son. It reminds me that I wanted to do the same for my family but totally forgot. Thanks for the reminder! :)