At the very busiest times of the year, when you’re running from rehearsal to gig to rehearsal to gig (with a little sleep thrown in when possible), you need to go on autopilot to cover some of your responsibilities. You can’t possibly give full attention to everything.
This is why we build skills to as high a degree as possible. So when you don’t have time to properly prepare for rehearsal, you can rely on your mastered skills to carry you through that hour.
You can get sick and still run six hours of rehearsal, because the core skills have been locked in.
You can go on autopilot, but only because that autopilot has been carefully engineered for effectiveness.
Soon, you’ll have more time, and you’ll be able to manually pilot a more elegant course – plan creative and effective rehearsals, cook more interesting family dinners, whatever. But in the meantime, you can rely on your autopilot as you spend your energy where you need to.