Folks,
Going way way back, the max Vref+20 limit was set on the B707, faster than this and it would be the nosewheel that touched down first.
Otherwise nothing to do with landing field lengths, and in SFAR 422b/FAR 25 not accounted for in landing field length, the logic being that the ground speed from having to deal with such winds meant that the distance was no more than the same weight at zero wind and Vref would produce.
The BCARs of the day had a quite different treatment, but the results were pretty much the same.
Tootle pip!!