40 odd years in Aus, NZ and Pacific Islands and have NEVER been cleared for an approach without also being cleared to the (or below) charted altitude for the approach. If it’s different in other parts of the world then ambiguity exists. Query at the time, follow up with written incident report, and an email to the chief pilot or fleet manager for a definitive answer, and keep at them until you get one, and make sure you keep it somewhere that it can’t be lost, deleted, altered or otherwise made not available to you should you need to mount a defence at some time. Same goes for any other issue that causes head scratching.