Manual focus. why the obsession?

And why the popularity of presets like VSCO that take a perfectly focused, gem like image and flatten it, add grain, etc?

The answer, for me at least, is threefold:

1. A perfectly exposed, perfectly processed, razor sharp, high dimensional image may be technically interesting, but has little appeal. No character. No soul.
2. Lenses have characteristics — particularly the older MF lenses. The Fuji lenses (I have the three basic primes) while very, very good, seem also very neutral to me. (Perhaps a good attribute?)
3. The Fuji X system is "analog" by nature — something of a retrospect. They hurt that goal, IMHO, with their fly by wire focus on the lenses. The MF lenses bring it back.

So I use the MF lenses not because they are manual focus, per se, but because that is the only way I can shoot with, say a Nikon 50mm 1.2 lens on the X Pro1. I would greatly prefer them to be autofocus, but with that silky smooth real manual focus when I want it...