Moved from CRM to Tech Log at OP's request.
While we can all make mistakes with profiles, I recall at AN as a young chap there was a great emphasis on keeping the mental picture going throughout the initial pre-descent and descent proper. Folks tended to have the descent profile where they desired throughout with a bit of ROD tweaking as required while the altimeter wound its way down.
Flexible thought processes facilitated out of left field recoveries (eg air traffickers' needing to keep the aircraft high due to traffic conflicts and so on). For sure the boxes do a useful job but, unless the pilot knows what is what, or lets his/her guard down, it is easy to allow the gee whizz stuff first to seduce and then to leave one in flagrante. Not infrequently, say coming into SYD from the north for a straight in landing during busy periods, one could find oneself exploiting the steep side of the aeroplane's descent capability.
More importantly, one recognised early when one really needed an orbit or some extra track miles to run and that made things easier for everyone concerned.