Solid point #1.
The transmission *could* be considered manual in that there is only one gear. But yes you lose the fun of shifting, but you gain the fun of instant always there torque. It's about an even trade off.
Discussion
It's not so much about the fun of shifting, just the fact that engineers are either bad at transmission tuning or are hogtied by emissions BS. With a manual transmission, I can drive it as I please.