If every ATCO, FISO, and AG operator did exactly what they were supposed to do, newer pilots wouldn't be confused, and the rest of us would play it by the book. BUT...
A certain AG operator in a certain well known airfield regularly insists on telling pilots how to join the circuit, when they can depart, taxi etc, and gets very annoyed if they don't do it his way. It's safer and easier to allow him his delusions of grandeur. Actually, I can think of TWO airfields like that.
Another airfield, recently upgraded to full ATC, had at least one ATCO who didn't seem to have realised this. Having given me joining instructions, he then ignored me. I twice asked hm if I was actually cleared to land, on a clear grass area reserved for helicopters, and was ignored. I started to wonder if coming to a hover was legally "landing" (it isn't, but I wasn't sure then, and anyway most ATCOs don't know this) when he finally realised why I wouldn't leave him alone, and remembered that what had been legal a week earlier...
Some airfields who have a different service during the week and at weekends have people on the radio who seem to forget that this means more than just their having a different name for the service.
I could go on, as these are not isolated cases. So yes, I do ask small airfields how they'd like me to join. It's much easier than my telling them, and then getting into an argument about it.