i think it much depends on your subject matter.
as a dslr shooter, photographing dogs in action, a HUGE part of my brain is dedicated to dealing with focus, deciding where to put my focus point, trying to keep focus attained, and living with the consequences of my choice.
basically, i have to put the focus point where i think the dog's head will be in the final shot.... before the shot sequence starts, and hope it works out.
with the dslr, i can't just reframe as needed, i have to keep that focus point on the head. this means if the dog does something unexpected, i'm going to likely have body parts cut off or simply have a poor framing.
while, yes, it is possible for me to get 90% of my shots with my dslr without these fancy af modes, it's still holding me back and impacting my ability to get even better shots because i'm spending cycles on focusing instead of composition and other things.
View attachment 31493
Terrific capture! Was this with a Z9? Would you please share the settings?