You often travel in highway? If not, I don't think there is much use for the auto cruise

But you're right about maintaining the throttle on highway, it can be boring if the distance is too far away.
Proton used to be good during the 80s and early 90s. Those Saga, Wira, Satria and Perdana days. Then during late 90s and early 20s where Campro emerged, their reputation started to go downhill. Sad, once a company did something wrong, it will be very difficult for them to gain back their reputation especially in brand conscious society like Malaysia. Perhaps we should all give Proton a chance to prove itself in their new cars like Preve and Suprima S. Then we can see whether can we give them a 2nd chance or not to redeem itself.
Depends on what Proton. If a fully modded one with engines like 4G63T, 4G93T, 4G92 MIVEC and 6A12TT, then I'll have a lot of respect for those cars.
Old proton cars can be modded easily and performance is quite decent as well. Unlike certain new cars like Almera. There's one thread now about modding an Almera and the owner/TS seems to be facing much difficulties in finding ways to modify it.