some people prefer to drive on their own
I can't imagine why (this not aimed at you, but at the "I prefer to drive" cohort). I'm a petrol head (well ... an "electric-head" now I suppose!), and have never thought of driving as a chore or un-enjoyable, but that said a huge proportion of my driving is motorway, and on non-motorway I am often in bumper-to-bumper traffic, even if it is only a minute, here and there, whilst getting to the front of a queue for a roundabout.
On Dual carriageway I am on AP very nearly 100% of the time. Its not that I don't WANT to drive, I'm happy to, its that a combination of AP and ME is better than ME alone. Its a self-preservation thing. At the very moment when I glance at the dashboard something may happen , and AP will deal with that (indeed, it has happened, and AP saved me ...). The car two-in-front, that I cannot see, may brake suddenly and AP can see that (i.e. radar echo UNDER the car in front). The vehicle alongside may stray towards me, and if I have not noticed then AP will move out of the way. I also arrive more refreshed / unstressed which hopefully is also prolonging my grey-hair-free days ...
dramatic braking on the highway for no apparent reason
Definitely. But I am "driving". Hand on wheel "ready" and foot by "accelerator" ready. When AP brakes unnecessarily I just push accelerator myself. Yes its a nuisance (although i don't think "annoying", but I'm a techie, so I do understand, and am happy with the fact, that AP isn't perfect yet), but it doesn't happen often (I guess once every 500 - 1,000 miles) (I maybe better off with HW1 /AP1 than HW2/AP2 as HW1 reads speed signs and is less dependent on Speed Limit Map data)
When AP reduces speed to 45 MPH (on some main, non dual carriageway, roads here - speed limit 60 MPH) I use just TACC. That maintains a better distance than I probably would "driving manually" and will do the other "looking out for trouble" things that AP does.
The only risk is that someone would become over confident and not be paying attention and that has, sadly, resulted in two fatalities on AP (that I know of)
There is a reduced insurance rate (here in UK) if AP is fitted and, apparently, Tesla have reduced-accident-rate data from when they activated AP1 - .i.e. they had a large fleet of cars on the road that was AP1 capable, but (like the recent AP2) all the owners were patiently waiting for AP1 to arrive OTA. When it arrived the accident rate dropped (from memory 40%). Seems like a good justification to me ... I feel sorry for anyone who has an accident that AP would have avoided ...
