Apparently they landed with Max Reverse Thrust no Autobrakes(BTV) and used Reversers down to 60 knots or so....would probably have done the same..using the whole runway length.
Not quite true, Marcellus. Look at the video around the 4:00 mark. As they cross A9 they have slowed significantly. At A10 they are down to a speed where, I believe, they could have exited the runway if they wished. They exit the runway at A11, with approximately 850m remaining of a 4000m long runway.
I haven't got a horse in this race and am not criticising the decision making but in a non time-critical situation, such as this, I would be interested to know why they didn't reduce their landing weight further by burning off more fuel, as we've established they could not dump any more and why they did not choose an autobrake level that would have used more of the available runway, keeping the brakes cooler in the process.
A few melted tyre plugs is no big deal, especially as that's what they're designed for, but would it have been possible to avoid even that by landing at a lighter weight and using more of the runway?
(Being a driver of Boeings, I'm taking a punt here that this sort of flap snag is not a time-critcal situation on the Airbus and would welcome advice to the contrary).