I agree with Tired - there seems little point being vectored in the wrong direction at high speed on arrival, sensible speed control applied in plenty of time is preferable. Mind you, if you are a British jet behind a Spanish turboprop at PMI you get both - recently we had 230 kts 60 miles from touchdown and THEN extended vectoring to ensure the local gets in as number one!
On departure, I often think it would be useful to know what the constraint is before we can turn on track - ie if it is an altitude we can keep the speed back and get to that altitude quicker or if it is a position, we can accelerate to get to that point quicker.