I agree with your last point that there should be a tool to do the laborious stuff for you.

I agree that it would be handy to be able to do a mass application of a change simply by altering the udt.

I think it is a case of matching the tool for the job. If you need to be changing your field types then don't use udt's.

As a DBA I personally find that being able to wrap up a data type, default value and rule in one handy container is very useful.

Yes business rules and as a DBA I have to recognise that my users are my customers and let no man be unworthy of the angel that is sent him!

There has to be a caveat. George Bernard Shaw wrote that the reasonable man attempts to accomodate all changes and find compromises for all situations and therefore all progress is left to the unreasonable man.

I understand that you probably have a legitemate need to amend schemas and datatypes on a regular basis, I'm not criticising you!

In my situation this is the equivalent of a user saying "can you just do this..." which means scope creep, software rust, missed deadlines and lost profits.

I've seen the situation where accomodating the user requirements resulted in a contradiction between the functional requirement spec and the delivered system. The user (who had requested the changes) then criticised us for failing to meet the FRS, even though they had requested and designed the changes. That's working for government for you!