I prefer the manual switches and the adding the switch machines as that combination seems to work better that the switches that come as automatic. I have 22 manual switches that I have converted with switch machines and 4 that came as automatic. The manual ones are easy to convert and work much better.
I've used N scale Unitrack, and found it to be a great platform on which to run trains. Am currently "playing around" with a bit of HO, and find Kato's line in this scale to be equally awesome.
This should come as no surprise; after all, it's Kato!