it's is actually a parking brake, not the Americanized term e brake. the parking brake can be used in either a manual or automatic regardless. i prefer to have the vehicle held in park by the brakes along with the park gear pin , rather than just the park gear pin alone... also, using the parking brake regularly keeps the cables from seizing, as what normally happens when the parking brake is never used.The only way I can see any modern car wearing more rears, is when the e brake is sticking, that happens because when you use the brake it adjusts the rears, putting more pressure on the pads.
I don't think I ever used the e brake for the year and a half I owned my Trax, unless your parking on a very steep incline you don't need to use the e brake.
Using park in an auto trans is more effective at holding the car in place than any e brake, in a car with a manual trans an e brake is needed, but not with an auto.
The trax has rear drum brakes.Back when I was a kid it wasn't the E brake it was what it was the Emergency brake, that was its intention to stop you in case of a hydraulic failure.
Every time you use the emergency brake it advances the worm that adjusts the brakes moving the pads closer to the rotor, that is why you see premature pad failure on disc brake cars.