A lot of automatic transmissions plain aren't that smart; I can think of several I've driven that were too conservative about changing down on a hill which made the cars much less responsive than they should have been. Also there's the old chestnut about autos being less fuel efficient / less powerful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manual_transmission#Benefits

Either way, I don't think the prevalence of manuals in Europe is entirely (maybe not even mostly) about not giving up control to the machine.