Where Iowa's assistance stops short of an autoloader

If people still load shells and powder into the hoist, does the system count as an autoloader?

No; that remains assisted loading until machinery also handles the selection and transfer into the powered loading path.

The Iowa arrangement already powers most movement above the magazine, but people still select shells and charges and place them into the hoist path. That makes it an extensively assisted loading system. A complete autoloader must take over at least the shell-selection and transfer point, and ideally the propellant step as well. Powered rammers and hoists alone do not automate the full ammunition cycle.