I still shake my head over her and the real thing that bothered me, she really couldn' t understand why.
I would put this down to human factors. You tried to deliver a technical explanation to someone who was already 3 hours behind the aircraft and therefore probably taken back by the speed at which the whole thing just materialised (I've flown with 20k hour captains who have become totally rattled by circling approaches, forgetting to call for final flaps and checklists - due to preoccupations). On top of that, and to compound her disbelief, she probably flew with countless others who never did what you did (despite your sound reasoning).