HSA, I doubt it would have caused the delays and holding you noted - that was most likely to due to an increasing number arrivals on a single runway.
Often it's hard to extract "require" from international heavies: "Request RWY 16. Is that an operational requirement? Affirm, request RWY 16". I generally don't bother - if they request it I interpret that as require. They're asking for a reason and we'd look silly if they ran off the end after requesting something longer.
As 441 noted RWY 27 requires an inspection after taking an A380 so they get the long one if possible.
For smaller aircraft the flow might be curious as to the reason for requiring the long one as it's unusual and might indicate a problem with the aircraft. Your call of course, but your problem might affect our ops.