I think it's safe to say that there are pro's for both sides here. It all depends on the place however.
Where Bob instructs is A/G only, all joins should be via the overhead and all circuits are left hand only to only one runway in use. Therefore the direction and runway designator are superfluous.
If however you are at an airfield with left and right hand circuits, with possible dual runway operations, then the chances are that there will be ATC. In that case it would be up to them to instigate extra calls (e.g left/right hand, which runway etc) if
they feel it is necessary.
Until that time then it should be standard calls only - there's too much verbal diarhoea out there as it is (normally just as you're about to turn someone onto the ILS
CM