Sorry for the delay i have been away earning a living (flying!)
Yes hudson it is desirable to touch down as slowly as possible but you also have to have a safe margin above the stall which is even more desirable and life prolonging. Try doing a power on stall with full flap in your aircraft and then imagine that happening at 50 feet. given the option of running through the upwind hedge at 20 mph or smashing onto the threshold like a brick built ****house i know which i would prefer if push comes to shove.
Usiing a threshold speed with a measured safe increment above the of the stall is the correct way to conduct any landing. you will always get people in the club bar who tell you how they appraoch on the stall warner and can land on a sixpence but you know the connection with old and bold pilots i am sure.
the proffesional approach is to use measured performance that make allowances for suitable error. if you look at the figures in an owners manual they will have most likely been achieved by the best pilot on the best day in the best aircraft eg the manufactures test pilot. these figures would not be approved for public transport operation for instance. they would need to be factored to allow for the worst pilot on the worst day in the worst aircraft. performance tables for instance for pub transport opeartions of a c152 would mean that some runways that some flying schools use would be too short. i am not saying you should use the full factor but you should use a suitable cock up factor for long wet grass, inaccuracy, unfamiliar surroundings, terrain, wind, recency, type famil, etc etc.
so the first requirement is to ensure the a/c will fit into the field you want to land in and get out again. (who remebers the air india constellation that landed at RAF northolt in mistake for heathrow but could only get out on the back of a lorry!) and when i say fit in i mean fit in as a proffesional not a cowboy! just scraping across the threshold hedge on the stall is not the way to operate any aircraft.
there have been one or two comparisons with airliners and light a/c which are not really helpful. as mentioned before performance factoring is very generous and allows for the sort of error that can be made by most human beings of average performance. for instance on the jet i fly thrust reversers are not taken into consideration. we could probably land in half the distance we normally do if we really tried. somebody mentioned landind on a spot, on a light a/c yes but not an airliner. our appraoch is based generally on a 3 deg glidepath which puts you across the landing threshold at 50 feet and onto the touchdown zone which is 300 metres further on, further marks are at 150 metres. on a short runway, say Jersey, we want to be on in the 300 metre zone or by the 150 metres marks after the TDZ at the latest. if not ,we are going around. but again its different on a swept back wing jet, we have lift dumpers which prevent the aircarft from bouncing back into the air so we can sit the a/c on pretty firmly, indeed thats what we are aiming to do, get it on, no float, we also have carbon anti skid brakes which have an amazing affect on landing distance.
the other main difference is that swept back wing a/c stall at a higher incidence so they are on the back of the drag curve and are SPEED UNSTABLE on the last section of the approach. small light a/c are generally never on the back of the drag curve on the approach.
the only jets i have flown which are actually in the landing att at roundout height have leading edge slats which put them at a higher app att. with these you merely take the thrust off in ground effect and they sit on.
getting back to the original question the aim of the exercise is not to produce the shortest landing its to produce a safe short field landing. if i sail over the downwind hedge by a foot on the stall warner, crash it onto the ground and dump all the flap and apply max brakes i will do the shortest landing but if thats your technique i would check out your life assurance and make sure all your affairs are in order!
when i was an instructor i used to draw a diagram of 3 approach paths into a short field i labelled one, dead safe.. one. dead lucky and the last on DEAD and thats the one scraping over the threshold.