If auto fill was removed they would likely get rid of role selection all together.

A large part of why they have auto fill is to make games actually happen without ditching role selection completely. It was not done out of a disregard of players wants and riot decided the convenience of having a game actually happen within a few minutes of waiting was better then trying to match everyone's specific position requests 100% of the time. Overall 3 or 4 people on a team usually win because of this decision and one person has their turn of having to take out the trash and walk the dog. You are still more then likely limited to 3 positions you are ever going to be in instead of needing champs ready for all 5. Consider that your middle ground victory in this situation.

My advice would be to learn to play a couple supports because the likelihood of it going back to how it was in season 6 is basically nonexistent. It is not so bad playing support sometimes but the system in place for season 6 made players like me ditch support as my secondary position so I might actually get my primary position most of the time. This shortage of players whop were willing to fill when their desired position was not an option made the bottleneck even worse and in turn queue times longer.