VS, etc.
It's an Airbus. Fly it like an Airbus. If the pax wanted a corporate airplane ride, they'd own shares in NetJets.
Seriously, a truly gifted FO showed me that VS, used intelligently and well monitored, can give a real nice ride. I'm just too lazy to work that hard. I guess I always was "Low Tier", just saying.
BTW, if you want to start your descent immediately. Forget playing VS against AS. Just pull the thrust levers back to idle, kick off the A/P and fly the danged thing for a few seconds. Works every time.
When "automated", thrust takes five to ten seconds to begin to sloowwwllly spool down. Manually pulling the thrust levers results in an immediate, and more rapid spool down.