Altitude/DME tables
I support the use of Altitude/DME tables; note the order, altitude before distance.
This simple reordering drives the safer mind-set; not ‘we are at dist xxx the alt should be yyy’ … woops, but that of “we must not be below alt yyy until dist xxx”. This is the proactive use of a checking tool.
A simple check of parameters based on alt is after the fact (opportunity for error), whereas applying the tool as a (self-imposed) limit ‘not below until’ - altitude first, provides time (opportunity) for the necessary action to avoid a hazardous situation.
Thus not “Some points' altitudes are mandatory”, but ‘all altitudes are mandatory’.
Altitude involves the hard bits – the ground, whereas distance is generally softer.
I agree that Alt/Dist tables do not provide a solution, they are a tool. The human provides the solution in the use of the tool with a suitable mind-set; an Altitude/Distance table helps to steer the mind.