In my area (northeast NJ, a dozen miles west of NYC) stickshifts are just impractical; you’d have arthritic wrists/elbows by the time you’re 24.
Exactly why I got ride of my stick pickup at the time. Commuted to work through city traffic with something like 30+ traffic lights on the route. I developed a very painful hip flexor as a direct result of the constant shifting.
Yeah, manuals were great in the day when they delivered greater gas mileage (not anymore) or if you live in a rural area of the country, but for urban and even suburban traffic, no thanks.
One of my life rules is never live anywhere with a population density high enough to make driving a stick suck. I did a week in San Fran with a stick and all that “move two car lengths idle” killed my left knee. After a couple of days of that I turned to my hosts and said “tell me about this mass transit system I hear is so good” did most of the rest of the trip on the bus/ subway.
I commuted in stick shifts the whole time I lived in the SF Bay area. I didn’t mind it in traffic at all and manuals are a joy on mountain roads. The amount of work driving a manual transmission is way overplayed. The most important thing is clutch control and after a bit of exercise the leg gets used to it.