I guess they’re a bit inconsistent. I often fly with FBW A32NX experimental with the TOD indicator. My flight plans are created in SimBrief, then load the FS2020 .PLN file into the world map. I choose my starting gate/parking without changing any SIDs and STARs, and it usually inherits everything from SimBrief.
ATC usually tells me to descend around 10-20 nm away from my calculated TOD indicator, but when I do get the instructions, I just set my altitude to go straight to the intercept altitude for the final approach and let the VNAV managed descent take care of the descent rate.
Most times the ATC gives me the next descent instructions in time that I never need to level off at the first cleared descent altitude. Even if I do went ahead and reach the intercept point in time, ATC can sometimes tell me to expedite my climb. I just ignore them. And eventually they’ll give me the correct descend and approach altitude once I’m on final.