Great post Gary.
This whole thing is becoming a bit of an issue these days. As has been pointed
out the practice of issuing descent clearances followed by an 'expected' lower level is very much frowned upon due to the potential for level busts. In my mind its a pity because I used to use it a lot. Believe me, when you're busy with a lot of inbound stack traffic the last thing you need is an aircraft (invariably american) 'wafting' down to its cleared level blissfully unaware that it will need to be at or around min stack by the holding fix. This can seriously ruin your day.
I personally don't use 'expect' type clearances anymore but it can be frustrating as I feel more and more we do things in ATC because the pilot might make a mistake. I appreciate the potential for confusion but must we treat pilots as children/thickies?