Hi Aviophage,
Either you've not lived long enough or don't do CDA approaches. ATC often offer a short cut, with speed reductions. Intelligent use of speed brake may be necessary in order to be stable by 1,000 ft.
Please give me your FCOM ref for Speed brake & Flaps.
because mine says:
"SPEEDBRAKES ............................................................ .................... AS RQRD
If the pilot uses speedbrakes to increase the rate of deceleration, or to increase the rate of descent, be aware that VLS with speedbrakes fully extended, in the clean configuration may be higher than green dot speed and possibly > VFE FLAP 1.
The A/THR in speed mode, or the pitch demand in OPEN DES, will limit the speed to VLS. In this situation, the pilot should begin to retract speedbrakes upon reaching VLS + 5 kt and should select FLAP 1, as soon as speed is below VFE NEXT. He may then re-extend the speedbrakes, if necessary. The landing gear may always be extended out of sequence to aid deceleration."