Totally agree about the steering wheel gear shifters. I have a manual car and an auto car, both with left down and right up shifters. When I test drove an auto 23 recently I found myself changing up instead of down on a couple of occasions.
Interestingly I always drive the manual car by the paddles (it has an auto change option) but tend to leave the auto to its own devices but throw it into sports mode for spirited driving.