Ok, I have a Canon Powershot G9. I use it mostly like a point and shoot with the settings at 'auto' and it really seems to take great pictures this way. What really would be the difference in picture quality if I shot a house in a field 50 yards away with this method opposed to placing it on a tripod and using the aperture priority setting (along with setting the ISO and white balance, etc).
Basically, you have the control to make creative choices. In aperture priority mode, you get the choice of whether or not the background and/or foreground will be blurred out. If you have it in manual mode, you can choose the degree of depth of field (blurring back/foreground) AND you can control if you want to over/underexpose the image to blow out highlights, deepen shadows, preserve shadow details, preserve highlight details, etc... If it's something moving (to deviate from the original house scenario), you can control motion blur, etc...
Welcome to the forum. Aperture priority is still an auto exposure mode. So it will give you the same exposure as the full auto mode. You do get to choose the aperture, which affects your Depth of Field...but I don't know how much difference that would make when you subject is 50 yards away. Shooting on a tripod will usually give you better image quality..especially if you do it correctly and use a remote release or the camera's self timer (to ensure that you aren't touching it when it fires). Also, using a tripod to keep the camera steady, means that you can use a longer shutter speed without having to worry about blur from camera shake...so if you wanted a deep DOF you could set a small aperture (high F number). The smaller the aperture, the longer your shutter will need to be to compensate...and that's where the tripod really helps.
I shoot 90% in aperture mode. And you normany can control the over/under exposure with EV comp. Allot of people only use manual mode but I think that's like owning a formula 1 car and driving it around like an old lady. And I only use my tripod when taking landscape pictures because that's the only time I really user a higher aperture like f/22 also if your shooting while zoomed with a slow shutter (around 1/50) you will probably notice some blur if you don't have it on something like a tripod.
What in the world are you talking about? First off, A LOT of people use manual mode because they want to be in control of all the settings and have all creative exposures available.
