Going through and checking your plants every day is important. Hand watering is a convenient way to inconvenience yourself, but to accomplish the goals of keeping eyes out for disease, management decisions, plans. It's also relaxing and good for ones mental health.
I'm by some where between an amateur and a professional gardener. I've got about 20 fruit trees and a small orchard, as well as around 20 sq meters of kitchen garden. It takes me about an hour to water the whole thing.
I'm planning automation for at least my vanilla vines, which are much more sensitive to drying out.