Rananim, whilst there must be allowances made for cultural differences between operations on either side of the Atlantic I think you are tipping considerably too far towards - and, I think, past, the American style. ATC do NOT "command" us any where in the ICAO world, whatever are you thinking of??? Who is the Captain of the aircraft??? Not the poor ATC Officer, that's for sure. I'll be thankful not to be SLF on one of your flights...
As far as 390ft, 19 miles of planned exit configured runway positioning excuses
STOP!!
Bolleaux!
Company SOP says "Should" be stabilised by 1000', and "MUST" be stabilised by 500ft. "Must" is an imperative. There can be no exceptions.
Let's go on, shell we? SOPs continue by saying that if the a/c is not configured by 500' then the (PNF) "Must" say, "Captain You Must Go-Around!" What is ambiguous about that?
Clearly this did not all happen.
The next call by SOP's is along the lines of (PNF) "I have control. GO AROUND Flaps 15!"
Clearly this did not all happen either, or there would have been a go-around.
Red hetrrings about empty 19000m planned exits just don't apply.
This is beginning to sound like the line being drawn, or, as Voltaire once (almost) put it,
"De temps en temps il faut tuer un Capitaine, pour encourager les autres."
The SOP is unmistakeably clear. You may well think that airmanship might might allow a variation, but then again might airmanship not have made him go around according to SOP?
And, as has been said before, I'd be very surprised if this was the sole event leading up to this result, unless there is a lot more here than we are privy to.