I'm talking about protected distances that make it safe to 'lock on' not how far out you can receive a flyable signal.
Well, lets see.
Intercept, capture, and fly inbound.
Oddly enough, this is precisely what was done at greater than normal distances I mentioned above.
I don't refer to manually flying inbound, using the heading select mode of the autopilot, but actually capturing and tracking the localizer at extended distances.
Older aircraft could do this just fine.
It could well be that new(er) generation aircraft are not so adaptable, and if this is the case (rather than individual airline SOP's, which sometimes are not that well thought out), one would have to ask....why not?
Good gosh, even the 'ole B707 could capture/track the localizer at extended distances, provided of course that the ground installation was up to snuff.