A variety of responses, from various controllers who aim to maintain safety in a number of control zones.
If you’re going to be transiting a particular control zone a lot I’d recommend either visiting the tower or picking up the phone to them for a chat. For instance, it’s good to know IFR traffic patterns and usual altitudes for each runway in use, practical altitudes for your transits, and to see (if you have the opportunity) what it looks like from the controller’s perspective.
It’s good for controllers too, to get a better understanding of what your requirements are.
FWIW on a first call a direction of transit is useful to me e.g. request a north-south transit via XXX. Any others find this useful?