If "you sit at the helm for hours on end, daily" then your not cruising,
your driving your boat.

Isn't the OP a power boater? If so, so much for windvanes.

As far as autopilot goes, that may be fine
offshore but in coastal cruising or inland waters there is usually enough
traffic that one has to keep a constant lookout, anyway.

One of my personal gripes is encountering a give way vessel that is reluctant
to make a course or speed adjustment in a timely manner because some damn
computer is actually running the boat. The computer doesn't know the rules of
the road, and the GPS doesn't even know any other vessels exist. :-)