You're right - descent management is important and this would apply with eg. a VOR/DME approach.
Anyways - interesting discussion. In my first reincarnation in the industry (1980s), we did a thing called a Class 1 and there wasn't such a thing as a DGA endorsement on your instrument rating... although DME arrivals were published and we flew them all the time... just with the primary NAVAID recency.
I only got back on the horse a couple of years ago (just flying privately now) and in my "renewal" to get the MECIR it was surprising to see the DGA as a whole separate endorsement with it's own recency... that's what they call progress I guess.