I'm joining the thread late and I haven't read all of it.
However, if this is going back to the "160 to 4/170 to 5" debate, I've flown 737s and 777s as well as A320s and all are capable of anything up to and including 180 to 4 (clearly with the exception of a tailwind on finals) whilst complying with the BA SOP of stable, power up and in landing config by 1000R (I've always taken that to mean 1000' aal).
All require gear down and slightly unusual configurations to achieve it but all are well within flap and gear limitation speeds. We have to be sensitive to noise and CDAs which make us reluctant to do this, particularly at LHR (I have a friend in Richmond who invariably has the gear dropped just over her house for the A320 to achieve 160/4 in a quiet configuration).