I have an anecdote to offer: in the early 2000s I was learning to drive in a former comunist country. Most cars were Dacia 1310, a copy of 1970s Renaults. The stick was awful, the steering was very heavy (as in lifting weights heavy), the clutch was terrible. It was very difficult to drive one, let alone learn to drive one. Newer and better cars were just beginning to appear, but there were few of these and they were expensive. There were two lines of thought in my circle: (1) that you should learn on a Dacia, because then you will be able to drive anything and (2) you should learn on a modern car, because it is easier. Needless to say, camp (2) won: the Dacias all but disappeared and furthermore, newer cars are mostly automatic.So I wouldn't hold my breath that the manual gear shift will survive.
nottorp|3 years ago
The 1310 didn't have power steering :)
But it can be worse. You could try driving a 2 ton Mercedes with non functional power steering. That's a sweat inducing task.
Anyway, with no power steering you have to keep the car moving at a snail's pace when turning the wheel. No adjusting wheels in place if you're not up to date with your weight lifting. This skill got lost before the skill to drive a manual.