Capt Snooze. No, VSA is not an outdated thing no longer used. It is an accepted abbreviation in MATS (I know you have most likely never seen MATS, but we do use it) and is used on flight progress strips to indicate that the aircraft has been issued a visual approach. The reference is MATS Part 10, Section 3. All towers still use strips as they are the most effective way of keeping an air picture. RAAF approach/area control units still use strips. TAAATS approach/area units have a 'stripless' system. Sorry if there was any confusion about the use of VSA. I hope your 5 mile final question was answered sufficiently by the above post. Interesting, if not anal, question.
Cheers,
NFR.
PS. Regarding the subject of the topic, I did the exact same control technique to the same aircraft type with the same operator on the same flight 2 nights afterwards. The result: A visual approach was performed and the aircraft landed. 3000ft was the lowest altitude assigned before the VSA. Hmmmm...