BusyB,
You're not making any sense, I agree crossing Siera at the minimum FL puts you closer to the profile, but for a given track miles to touchdown, irrespective of the crossing FL at Siera, your fuel burn is the same. Whether you use some speed brake, or lots of speed brake to burn excess energy, your thrust is still at IDLE, and the time spent in the air from Siera to touchdown is roughly the same..so please explain to me again where you're wasting the fuel? It doesn't make for a comfortable ride I agree, but one could argue that you save fuel by delaying the TOD point.