To me it's quite telling where the captain stated he didn't expect the AFDS to climb the aircraft to meet the path when VNAV PTH was announciated on the FMA.
I fly this approach into YMML fairly regularly but normally ask for the RNAV due to better minima being available.
Having flown with an ex Thai guy into YMML, he tried to do exactly the same thing on the VOR, i.e dive and drive, inspite of our company SOP of a constant 3 degree descent on a non-precision approach, so I'm wondering if its as much a company culture thing or perhaps the way were initially trained?
In any case there is really no excuse, the FMC if you check it against the approach plate allows for a beautiful arrival with no level segments, it works great on the 777.
The visual call to the tower says to me he might have used that as a get out of jail call....