There will always be a degree of automation in MMORPG games (at least until someone decides to implement some kinect-like crap). Don't kid yourself thinking that pressing one more key puts you that much more "in control"
For me, it does. Maybe not for you (or else we probably woudln't be arguing).

I"m going to put myself out in the line of fire here, since a lot of ff fans seem to skorn what I'm about to talk about. Everything I'm about to say is pure opinion.

I played wow for 3years, and xi for 6 years. I played xi, before wow. One thing I enjoyed about wow over xi, was my feeling of freedom. I felt like I was in complete control of my character. It responded faster, I could move almost anywhere, and if I couldn't, it was because a wall, cliff or rock was higher than I could jump. The feeling of having more freedom with my character made the game thrilling for me. In that sense (I know I'm going off topic here) I wish the entire combat design was faster, more fluid and restricted more by my reflex response time than me waiting for slow character animations (xivs combat).

Before I get flamed for mentioned w.o.w. on these forums, let me say this. FFXI is to date, my favorite game of all time. I've been playing games since probably 1985 (call me old). I have played almost every FF game through, multiple times. My reasons maybe different than mosts though. Personally I think FFXI itself was a very horribly designed game. The ui was terrible, combat was slow I could go on for a while. But the comunity and teamwork the game forced you into, meeting new people making new friends, mostly just the people that were playing it (community again) made it the best experience out of any game i've ever had. I would say the exact opposite of wow. The games design is amazing, the community is very horrible.

Flame away.