“Just askin- were you ever a pilot? “
No. Don’t fly much. I read that the airliners can land without the pilot doing anything. Nowadays, cars can come close to driving themselves.
What’s was airplane’s autopilot or flight management system thinking as this plane approached the runway? Was it screaming warnings?
Modern ones can do all that as you suggest. For instance what most folks realize is that the Airbus jet at the center of the “Miracle on the Hudson” story had a ‘ditch in the water’ mode. Sully just had to make the right decision fast, which he did, line up the aircraft, which he did, then activate the ‘ditch mode’ which closed all the right vents to keep water out, set the flaps and managed the descent (probably hands off) all the way to the waters surface.
This 16 year old CRJ was a good but budget short haul aircraft. It would not have all the modern gizmos.
To your point all the new Boeing 7X7s and Airbus’s can fly the plane from initiation of takeoff all the way to landing, if the airports are up to date as well. Most pilots don’t do that due to deviations imposed by heavy traffic and air traffic Controller instructions. Trans-ocean flights are so automated the airlines have STRICT rules about who can sleep when in the cockpit, along with ways of monitoring that 😉