De Sitter Wing Design
There is (or always was) a fundamental difference between approaches... Airbus went a bit more for minimal area with very high lift devices and Boeing (usually) adopted a 'big wing', lower wing-loading philosophy.
Anotther way of saying this, that might make more sense to some, is that the 'low drag cruise bucket' is (or should be) a bit wider on the Boeing than Airbus.
However, that was a few decades ago, I imagine now, as we find with many cars for instance, that optimum design from different mfrs eventually tends to merge to a common theme and standard.
I can't really comment much on your view on low level and approach flight behaviour. I would doubt whether, effects observed were dependent on wing design.