Its another one of those outdated restrictions which modern technology has made superfluous. I have an automatic car but if you put it into manual mode and use the paddles it takes far more concentration than a standard five or six speed manual and requires constantly taking your eyes off the road to watch the gear indicator and the rev. counter. Operating a clutch might be hard to master for an absolute beginner but its easy enough after a few days of practice.

as many have said as there is no clutch lever for the rider to operate , then it's classed as full auto..freind of mine rides his DCT on an auto licence,

Now this is an interesting one...
https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/fir ... irst-ride/

A new MV Sport Touring bike that has a clutch....but you don't need to pull the lever at all, if you don't want to! (Assuming MCN know what they are talking about).
How will this fit in to the Manual / Auto regs? I presume that as it actually has a clutch, you would need a manual licence, even if you don't actually need to touch it. I presume the box itself doesn't have an auto option (ie you have to change gears) unlike the DCT.