ANSA,
If you don't like it, fine, but I have shown how it is legal and safe and been done for 30 years that I know of and still used everyday in procedural towers (obviously not common on procedural enroute anymore, more's the pity, because it can be more efficient) - vertical requirement prior to first aircraft getting to lat sep point.
Quokka,
Yes you had separation, but it's not always no penalty, whereas a lat sep of 8 DME can be much more efficient, with no-one having to go off track. Provision for radio failure is not in the sep standards, but what's the difference between giving a requirement by lat sep as against 10 mins prior to time of passing - they both allow for radio fail as long as you give the requirement prior to radio fail and who knows when that may be!!
As for thinking beyond the square of accepted practices - I now work radar approach and it doesn't take much of a change in acft position for a completely different solution to be required.