At an aerodrome i fly into to land runway 36 and coming from the north you have join downwind because there is a stinking great hill where you would join DW from the 45 deg and another on the other side if you wanted the mid x wind.
To me i think it would be a bit much to have to overfly 5 miles then turn back for a straight in.
For me if you broadcast your intentions and give appropriate spacing, why not join downwind?
Cheers