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Surely providing the litigant with a meaningful assessment of what they can expect to pay improves access to justice and contributes to a reduction in costs and delay.
The underlying theme of many of the objections raised to costs management is - we (the profession) don't want to be held to a costs estimate that we provide to our client. When are lawyers going to wake up to the fact that the services we provide are subject to the same forces that affect any service industry provider.
We should to be able to adequately and properly assess in advance the costs of our services and then stick to the estimate made. That is not to say that the estimate cannot change due to changing circumstances, but it does we need to be able to properly justify the change and have the "variation" agreed.