Here's the fallacy in your argument: NONE of the mechanical "nannies" you mentioned try to drive the car for you. ESC and T/C do EXACTLY that; you have a computer and sensors trying to decide what you MEANT to do (as opposed to what you actually DID DO), then attempt to do it FOR you. Power steering, power brakes, and so on provide additional mechanical leverage to the driver; computerized nannies (and yes, that includes paddle shifters) attempt to take the driver out of the equation. The operative word is attempt, because unless the thing is so intrusive that it overrides everything you do, it simply can't do that; make a bad enough mistake, and the thing can't help you.
If you doubt this, try the following experiment: take a C6 Z-06 Vette to a large, wet parking lot. Leave the T/C off and AH on (the mode which most Vette drivers use in the wet). Get to about 20 mph in 2nd, and stomp the throttle. When the slide starts, counter steer into it (the AH will catch it, but NOT immediately), then go against your instincts and act like a panicked novice: over-correct hard the other way, and stab the brake. (Be sure to leave some room for the AH to catch up: you'll need it!). You will find, that despite the nanny, you just made a little bobble into a much bigger problem.
Right about now, you're going to say, "No one would actually do that on the road!". Well, you or I wouldn't; we'd make one smooth correction and that would be that; but if you believe nobody would (or has), go take a look at the vid over in the "Nannys won't save you" thread, and observe a Vette driver with questionable skills doing exactly what I just described, on the road at a higher speed. The moral: the nanny will ( at least sometimes) make a reasonably skilled driver who works with it look better; it will NOT, however, necessarily help a less competent driver who uses poor judgment, or panics, and thus fools it, or goes past its capabilities.
BTW, ESC, and T/C don't "make you faster; at best, they give you enough false confidence to TRY to be faster. Paddle shifters are arguably faster on the track-for an expert driver who can manage the car at its absolute limits. Below that level, shift speed has less effect on lap times than other factors; that is, unless we are talking about an utter novice who can't drive a stick (in which case he lacks the other skills needed to be fast anyway). On the road, well, if you're driving that fast on a public road, you're doing something you shouldn't in the first place!
On the other hand, this technology does promise one thing; eventually it will let the regulators literally drive for you, by remote control; not much fun, but hey, its the latest and best, and we'll all be safe....in a gilded cage! Coming soon to an overprotective, risk-averse, litigation-happy, and totally emasculated society near you! Ain't "progress" grand?
