Basil
Ha Ha You remind of an old sod I flew with on DC10's. Going into LAX, ATC did the normal trick of 350 knots one minute and 250 the next 4000 fpm one minute and 1000 the next. In the end we were asked to speed up and increase rate of descent at the same time. We had full speed brake out at the time so he increased power. I pointed out this fact and was told "sonney, speed brakes are for going down and throttles are for going faster". Well I guess he was corect in a kind of way.
The majority of occasions speed brakes are used can be avoided by decent planning and energy control. Also anticipating what ATC will want of you helps. One bit of energy control is to close some throttle at your normal point of descent even if you are waiting for clearance to descend. Get rid of energy in a fuel efficient maner not inefficiently by using speed brake. But I guess that is not a normal SOP and would be frowned upon by the "never out of the box brigade".