Just as a random note, anytime I see somebody playing this game on twitch/live from playstation, they have automatic mode on. Are people just picking that mode on accident? It's like the equivalent of playing a Gran Turismo game that steers for you.
How does that mode even work? Wouldn't things be unplayable due to the random nature of the automation? And didn't Bayonetta also have an auto mode as well? In the 15 years of playing DMC games I have never touched it. It was in DMC1 and DMC3 as well.
The way the mode works is something I always wanted to break apart but never really felt compelled enough to do it because IMO no one should actually be playing the game on that mode but I also recognize that some people just want to mash through the game and not learn anything.
Automatic mode sort of works on a proximity system and it's not 100% random. You will mash Triangle and it will do random moves with Triangle like Hightime (rising/non rising versino), Stinger, aerial rave, combo strings etc. but it will be based on the distance/location of the enemy. In automatic mode something peculiar that happens is that if an enemy is slightly above you then Dante sometimes even does an instant air Helm Breaker so sometimes it even jump attacks for you.
For guns it sort of has changed over the years. If you hold down the [] button in DMC1 then Dante will fire guns in turbo style so he will just keep firing rapidly as you hold it down. This means that you were gated from using charged bullets. This worked with Devil Trigger moves too by the way, sometimes you would be mashing Triangle (well lit's actually Circle in the OG DMC1 game but in the HD collection it's Triangle) and suddenly Dante would do an instant air Vortex out of no where. And by the way you could do all of these special moves without even having to hold down Lock On.
In DMC3 it gave you access to instant CC triggers out of the blue without you needing to mash the required number of attacks at the style bar.
In DMC4 with Nero, they take it a step further by seemingly randomly giving you instant charges on Red Queen when you are just mashing Triangle so it's even using the functionality of L2 without you even pressing L2. It also auto charges the Blue Rose for you. For Nero it almost did everything for you.
DMC4 Dante had some additional quirks with automatic mode too. For Vergil, you could get automatic perfect release attacks from attacks that could get it like Judgment Cut.
As to why people pick Automatic mode, it's because they don't know any better. Most people don't come from a fighting game background so for them they see "Automatic" mode and think of it like Automatic vs Manual transmission in a car racing game or something and just pick it without thinking too much about it. They aren't actively trying to make the game dumbed down, it's just extremely poorly explained.
The whole automatic mode thing is why some people to this day still think DMC is a button masher. "Oh yeah I TOTALLY beat DMC by just mashing buttons on Easy Automatic mode...."