Years ago I helped a buddy take his hold Chris Craft 45-foot wood motoryacht from San Francisco to somewhere in Oregon, something like 600 nms. She had old Chrysler gas engines, one with an exhaust leak in the manifold which confined us to the open wheel house. She had a VHF radio and that was it - no A/P, no radar, and a Loran that we would take Lat/Long readings and hand-chart on a paper chart. We made one stop for fuel in Crescent City. Seas were generally calm, but we hit pea-soup fog at night off Cape Mendocino. Every 20-mins or so we issued a pan-pan on the VHF with our location, speed, and direction of travel. I admit, it was scary. But hand-steering was awful - we easily swung 30+ degrees in each direction.
My sense is the OP, with his 25-foot Atlas (nice boat, BTW) and cruising grounds of Great Lakes and upper Mississippi will not be doing stretches like I did. Thus my vote for A/P as it will make life a lot more fun and enjoyable, and yes, safer. Having radar and hand-steering is not great and not exactly safe, just safer than not having radar. That said, as described above, I totally get the recommendation for radar. But if I were in the OP's shoes, I'd learn to watch the weather more carefully and stay out of the need for radar.