Originally Posted by Southern Fried

"Climb via" or "Descend via" is just another transfer of the workload from ATC to the pilots. It isn't too much of a problem for the Boeing and Airbus crowd with true vnav and autothrottles, but for those of us without those two items in the cockpit it reduces SA while you are trying to make sure you don't F up a crossing restriction during the climb or descent as the case may be.

Don't get me started on the individual Tracon idiosyncrasies when it comes to taking you off the profile to "make it work."