This is very true those DIN plugs can be a little fiddly in the dark while holding a large glass of red
My controller is fixed to the mount and I leave the manual control permanently plugged in and then attached to the pier with a little square of Velcro.
I am not really doing any visual work, only photography and have the focus positions for various setups stored as pre-sets on my client. As a consequence don't really use the manual control very often. It is useful if the DSLR is on the scope and you want to get approximate focus using live view. Generally hit the focus pre-set and then nail focus with a mask. Then obviously forget the mask and have to do the first sub again
Clear skies,
Dave