And this is exactly why I stopped using in-sim ATC long ago. I’d be 50 miles from my destination at FL380 - 410 and still waiting for lower altitude to even start the arrival, and as soon as I start descending, the sim yells at you to climb and maintain your prior altitude. I resorted to regularly asking for lower in very inefficient step-descents.
The heck with that. VNAV in the PMDG 737 without being yelled at by brain-dead AI ATC is delightful. 