That's an interesting proposal. It would be a bit helpful on some ships; probably kill you on others. I can see it being possibly helpful for some decent players but harmful to a low level player that gets bored of steering and wants to man a gun, though probably not much more harmful than that currently is. A lot of pilots make sure to point their ship where they want it before getting off the wheel in the rare case they are in need to do so. Most just never get off the wheel which is normal as you want to be in control of a ship.
Something to take note of is that an AI rework is coming soon. so that silly AI will be a bit more helpful to ya