I was exactly like you before I got my current car. But you can switch most autos into manual mode. Mine doesn't have the paddles, but I can just move the gear shift over to the left and then push it up to change up a gear or down to change down, so you can still be in control of the gears if you wish, and leave it in a gear until high revs to get more acceleration before changing if you wish. However I can just switch it into S sports mode and it does that for me anyway, so not really any need.

I think DC's new car does have the paddles though for quick gear changes, so lets see what he thinks of them.