Great post Spitoon.
My impression from this post and another similar question in the Tech Log forum is that what yourself and our Spanish ATC friend have said is what I had expected to be the case. It does seem that we pilots decipher certain situations we find ourselves in and become confused as to the actual legal requirements and/or expectations.
In my mind I feel happier that we should be maintaining the last assigned level until established on the localiser or segment of the approach before commencing further descent, assuming we have already been cleared for the approach. At the end of the day if we need lower we should ask for it, and if we're not sure if we're already cleared we should ask for clarification!!!
Many thanks guys & gals,
CP