I wouldn't go so far as to say that lowering by .5 or .25mg was my idea. My guess is that the rheumatologist uses the easiest instructions to follow - i.e., after 10mg, reduce by 1mg every 2 to 4 weeks. As well as the Mayo PMR forums, Facebook also has a very busy (and less organized) PMR area with some 16,000 participants when I joined. Polymyalgia rheumatica seems to be the most common ailment that no one has ever heard of, so commonly a first post reflects utter shock.

Tapering by percentages is often brought up and made more sense to me than dropping by 1mg when the base amount kept changing.

Here's a copied list of the percentage drop if you just taper by 1mg each time:
10-9 is 10%
9-8 is 11%
8-7 is 12.5%
7-6 is 14.2%
6-5 is 16.6%
5-4 is 20%
4-3 is 25%
3-2 is 33.3%
2-1 is 50%

Honestly, after we found the proposed reduction in dose causes flares for my dad, we simply told his rheumatologist we wanted to slow down the taper and she said that was fine. We make it as small as is reasonable and doesn’t drive us crazy as far as chopping up the various denominations of pills haha.

But in my family, we’re all very sensitive to medications and used to having to make adjustments and advocate or ask if there’s a different way (within reason). And thankfully his rheumatologist encourages being thoughtful about it and deciding what works for his body.