Bookworm wrote:
In other words, is there ever any point in in splitting the intercept instruction from the descent instruction
Yes! At the unit where I work, it is a very common to have inbound aircraft being on a closing heading at 15+nm from touchdown (out to 25nm for straight-ins). Because of terrain/other traffic/min radar service levels these aircraft can often only be safely cleared to descend to 4000ft which puts them well outside the protected range (10nm and roughly 3000ft) of the Glidepath . So they get a localiser 'clearance' then when safe and appropriate a further descent to 3000/2500ft and then a glidepath 'clearance'
DD