Thank you Bookworm, yours is a much more precise mind that mine
Droopystop
unless of course one is referring to an approach with a 1000' MDH, which isn't really an approach, it is more a descent enroute.
Yes and no. To make a typical visual approach (not a 3deg ILS type of thing) you want to be say 1000ft AGL 3 miles before the runway. I wouldn't call that an en route descent. The entire length of such a "procedure" will be no more than any published one.
I wouldn't descend to 1000ft above the runway elevation say 20 miles out. Not many runways have zero obstacles that far back. So there is a lot more opportunity to hit something that you have missed.