I have pretty much no use for automatic transmissions, I've always owned manuals. Shifting gears in 4wd, low range while dodging trees and boulders on the way up a 40 degree incline with huge ruts across it is actually fun for me.
It's always fun before something goes wrong. Having fun if you screw up it is just playing. If your wife and kid was in the back and a delay of an hours to get unstuck is a death sentence your better off with an automatic.
There is also the question of what happens if one of your legs is injured. Especially if it isn't a major emergency. I blew out a knee and had I not had an automatic I would have been stuck. Yes, I know, in a real life and death emergency I could limp along by timing the shifts and hoping the synchronizers hold up making up any differences in the RPMs. Tough on the clutch and transmission. And unless your very familiar with the vehicle and practiced your not going to be smooth enough to make it in traffic. But given a life or death situation hardware and traffic be damned.
As it was with my right knee in a splint I was able to lay it across the passenger seat and drive by sitting catty-corner with my butt against the driver side door and working the accelerator and brake with my left foot. No drama, no extra wear and tear.
You left out a part of the equation though. Mechanical failure. Which type of transmission is a lot less prone to fail you when you REALLY need it to get you out of a bind? A manual.
An automatic can be built to be almost as strong as a similar manual transmission, but it would require a decent amount of work as well as additional cost.
Out in the woods we put our transmissions through absolute hell. I've seen transfer cases ripped in half, third members ripped out of the axle housing, entire axles ripped out from under rigs. I've snapped 6 axleshafts, probably 20 universal joints, ripped out my rear driveshaft, and a lot of other carnage.
In all that, the factory manual transmission has never let me down other than requiring a throwout bearing once (and it still got me home, just made noise and had to be replaced afterwards). I've seen a lot of guys I ride with have a lot worse luck with automatic transmissions.
I agree that an automatic would be easier if injured. But I'd be trading off capability that I require on an almost daily basis for a possibility that something MIGHT happen. Just not justifiable in my personal case, your mileage may vary.
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