I'm wondering what more could have been done in 3 hours to potentially solve the problem that could not have been done in an hour or so? Getting engineering advice, possibly?
Entirely up to the crew to choose the time of landing however I also wonder if they stayed airborne longer to allow the resources necessary to quickly remove the a/c from the runway to get put in place so that the runway remained blocked for the minimum of time. As stated, there were many arrivals/departures they may not have been possible had the a/c landed at the first opportunity after all fixing attempts were exhausted.
It'll all be made clear in the end, hopefully.