Why does it make you feel better to be given a 10 minute hold at 200 miles than us telling you to reduce speed to lose 10 minutes with the implicit understanding that you'll tell us what you want to do?"
The last part of this quote I think sums up the bones of the topic starters issue. It is Air Traffic Control not Air Traffic Negotiation. Due to attitudes, training and culture in Australian Aviation, controllers let the aircraft tell them what they want to do as opposed to the other way around.