I can't say what the background behind the thinking was, but when I was sitting on the flight deck during a test flight during landing on a particularly gusty, turbulent day, the Boeing test pilot selected lower flaps (25 instead of 30 IIRC), and added 10 knots to V-ref for the landing.
The Boeing test pilots I flew with were all extremely good stuck and rudder types, so I presume he knew what he was doing....