In another era, one of the first things I learned about flying a descent was the DME versus height profile applicable to the aircraft type. It took good instrument flying skill to maintain the appropriate speed applicable to each segment of the profile.
In event of an unexpected change by ATC (shortening or extending distance to run), and either the FMC unavailable or the pilot losing the plot because of slowness in button pressing, the ability to seamlessly switch to DME v height meant good situational awareness, and was a handy skill to fall back on. I am surprised that this skill is not encouraged during type rating or recurrent simulator training. And it is a skill; especially when winds are factored in and you are descending from high altitudes.
To aid the pilot it was common practice to ask ATC for the distance to run to touch-down since the controller should know which runway is likely and what other aircraft are around whose presence could affect your planned profile.
The trap of automation dependency is well known but from what I see and hear, few operators take it seriously or introduce effective measures to fix the problem. Different operators - different priorities for simulator training - are a fact of life nowadays. For new pilots on type, time spent in the simulator on high altitude descent profiles (preferably manually flown) is well worth the time used to teach energy (speed v height) control right from the start. Comments invited
