Preach it brother! If it weren’t for the fact that my transmission was already “built”, I would seriously consider doing a manual swap. And shift speed makes no difference on the street where the majority of high-end cars are driven anyway.
Why deal with this? (watch from 29:40 to about 30:50) 
When you can have this? 
So as not to de-rail the thread… I’m also baffled at the fact they won’t offer a V8 either. The 4.0T could be tuned to make similar power, with lower emissions and better efficiency vs the de-tuned 540hp version of the V10 in the standard R8. I swear, the more I see these things the more anxious I get about the finished game. As armchair CEO and official Monday Morning Quarterback, my version of the R8 would have a twin-turbo V8 and a 6-speed GATED manual. 