I think MechJeb is misunderstood by the haters. "It's an autopilot and you're missing out on the fun" (and other similar remarks) is, I think, a rather flawed statement. The autopilots for launch, landing and docking are just three features in a tool with so many features it would make a swiss-army knife feel insecure about itself. There is so much to MechJeb and while I consider myself a seasoned user of it, there are still features that I've never tried (or have and am still puzzled by).