I talked to a (real-life) German ATCO about this question. He told me that when they clear you for the ILS-Approach they want you to descend as published. To reduce the confusion they usually add "...descent altitude XXXX feet to establish". But usually they bring you down to the published altitude before clearing for the ILS-Approach.
Sorry, a little off-topic:
When we were talking about this some questions came up. How will you manage this in the cockpit? For example the A320: When cleared for the ILS you usually "press the APPR-Button". This makes the FMS capture the LOC and GS. In our scenario (descending to the published altitude before GS capture) it means that the FMS will stay at present altitude till GS-intercept. Does the FMS react on any new altitude-input? Or do you have to only capture the LOC, descent to the published altitude to then also capture the GS? Which means a higher workload. What about other aircraft?
Robert