I was taught to drive manual barefoot - by an instructor. To get better pedal feel.
(And decades later I simrace barefoot where there is essentially no useful pedal feel... in VR, so all physical interactions are completely blind - no touchscreens!)
Power brakes took away some of the utility of driving barefoot. A definite loss of feedback. But then again, in the ealy 21st century in the West is there any car that does not have power brakes ?
(And decades later I simrace barefoot where there is essentially no useful pedal feel... in VR, so all physical interactions are completely blind - no touchscreens!)