Yes I agree, good idea to get the flaps down sooner rather than later.
I did that once in the sim using the same logic, got a 5 min speech about it and I was told to never to do that again. The sim instructor's logic was follow the QRH and do not anticipate on it. Well I guess next time when in the sim I'll just follow the QRH, there are no pax evacuating anyway in the sim.