I'm exaggeratting here a bit but what if there is a dramatic change in lighting between two shots?Panoramas are about the only thing I shoot in auto. It properly exposes everything for you so your skies are much better.
ie: Full direct sun between clouds in the first shot - and the next shot to it has full cloud? Will the 2 exposures blend well? Or on a similar situation with a 360 pano on a sunset where the sun is setting in the west but the horizon on the east is now dark? Will auto exposure blend all 26 photos well?
I know I can experiment myself, but I can't for the next few days, so I'm just wondering if using the auto setting gives all well blended exposure blended shots.