My outfit is quite conservative and anything about 1.79 is considered an hard landing and must be reported even tho no maintenance action is required below 2.6G on A321 assuming below max landing weight. Heavier the aircraft and higher will be the G load. At least that’s what I observed on our fleet. Never heard of landing over 1.79G on A319 in our fleet but A321 very often and A320 quite rare.
And yes, pulling the stick at the last second will compress the main gears and increase the chance of higher G load.