Cycling of flaps is only achieved in Freezing conditions (<+3C), not Icing conditions (<+10C), when deicing has occurred, etc... Only with a set of worst criteria.
It is to ensure freedom of movement of controls and high lift devices and so on, secondly this also allows a flight control check if a jet has been parked for several days in sub temperatures on first flight back into service (we all seen the jets parked up and rotated throughout winter use).
Now I would like to suggest that any such check should be done only immediately prior to departure, such as at a holding point, therefore not halving the holdover time by up to 50% as riven by independent research. Unfortunately this seems not the case in practise.