my turn... hehe
the advantages to a manual are being able to freespool faster, cast and get the line on the roller faster, and are pretty much a must-have for pier fishing...
situation, you have a live bait out on the end of the pier, and a 30lb king comes out of nowhere and skys on your bait, instead of fumbling around with a bail, and having to use your left hand to flip it, you can use your right index finger to simply knock the line off the manual.... and then, after you're done freespooling, if the fish is hauling ass, you have a much better chance of getting a solid hookset, because you can get the line on the manual the first time, instead of attemting to flip a bail multimple times.
another situation, a ray comes in with about 6 cobia on it... you will be able to make quite a few more shots, accurate shots, because you can get the line on your finger faster, with only using your right index finger. and also, when in those high-adrenaline situations, it will be very damn frustrating to have a hungrey cobia right in front of you, and your bail close while in mid-cast, often times resulting in your jig popping off.:banghead
granted using a manual will take lots of practice to get used to, i believe it is definatly more efficient... and also, you won't have to worry about the bail spring breaking (usually the first thing to F up)... actually, you wouldn't have to worry about that, because a VSB doesn't even have a bail spring,... you have to flip the bail both ways by hand, before and after you cast:banghead
i think a manual will be your best bet, and it's cheaper too... hope this helps.