It does seem a bit dramatic at times even to call a justified pan, I don't know why one is so reluctant. I remember a partial engine failure, while revalidating my licence (expired by four days, yet). This left us able to maintain height at the expense of a loss of some airspeed, and my examiner and I spent most of the struggle back to the airport discussing whether we should call a pan, and in the end didn't, as the place was pretty quiet anyway. Got back to a definite "get this landing right" situation, much crosswind and a wet runway adding to the fun. To his eternal credit, my examiner let me land the unfamiliar aircraft while keeping his mouth shut and hands still.