Jonty----
What you say makes perfectly good sense and is of course, correct.
I have found over the years that it is the junior F/O types who like the high speed at low levels. These guys are relatively new to the profession (and jets) and therefore many times have little experience at ANTICIPATING possible problems with high speed and short vectors to the FAF.
I tend to let them make these mistakes on their own rather than correcting the situation earlier.
Once bitten, twice shy seems to work well at their experience level. After many years in line training, seems the best method to me.
Others may disagree, of course.