I've flown into this airport numerous times and cannot recall getting that clearance, having said that I always requested the ILS because this approach is garbage, even in day VMC. The ILS with a circle to 32 can be done at lower mins then this VOR.
As mentioned previously the setup is strengthened by the common practice in the U.S. of getting vectors to final at altitudes lower then published on the charts.
If anything positive here it's the fact that after multiple human errors the technology worked and the crew reacted as trained, therefore no smoking hole.
Retraining for all involved.