And btw, it was only recently that I learnt that an airplane could also
be landed by looking out the window. A good pilot friend told me that
he routinely landed by purely visual references! Until then, I was
under the belief that nobody sensible could afford to take his eyes off
the instruments in a phase of flight as critical as the final. That's
probably because I can't perceive airspeed

Percieving airspeed in jets might be harder (never flown one) but it's
generally not too hard in piston singles. Really, as long as you can
see the runway, there's no need to use any instruments. Most people (or
at least the ones I've flown with, myself included) don't look at
anything except the airspeed when in the pattern (and even that is just
checked every few seconds or so as a reference).
Basically, do you need instruments to stay on the road or maneuver the
car while driving? And do you need be constantly looking at the
speedometer? Flying is like driving, in a way, just in three
dimensions. You do it all on outside cues*.

*Obviously, this doesn't include flight in instrument conditions (low
visibility, basically).