You now have time to continue towards the airfield whilst, changing freq, receiving joining instructions and traffic information, looking for the traffic and setting the aircraft up for landing.
Why would I need the airfield in sight before I do any of that? Realistically, I'm going to start position for the join at about 5 miles, start looking for traffic at about 2 miles, and set up the aircraft for landing -- depending on what you mean by that -- anywhere between 10 miles (engine and speed management) to 1 mile (configuration).
On a clear day, I might see the airfield at 25 miles. At the lower limit of VFR, I'll see it at about 1 mile. So having the airfield in sight seems to have little to do with the preparation above.
I refer you to my earlier thread in Private Flying
which was the reason why I asked here. You didn't get a good answer there.