.. it probably comes from very high aspect ratio sailplanes, as well as some military aircraft (built like brick ****houses)
In the sailplane case, aileron would do very little or even a control reversal and pilot wouldn't want to push forward much (increase sink, or fall out of thermal) and a wee (but rapidly applied) bit of rudder keep that wing from dropping further (being a massive span).
Also note that it isn't always the 'dropping' wing that is the problem but the 'dragging back' wing, due to stall drag. With slower larger span aircraft the difference between outer and inner wingspeed is not insignificant... and may need correcting rapidly.. hence rudder!
How AA were conducting that programme without Airbus' input or comment and why, when an aircraft has most all the inbuilt stability to deal with most things thrown at it... well?
Controls centred and see what happens, then correct alittle (and consistently) if it climbs, dives or rolls away... (in heavy turbulence) could perhaps be one way of summing up a general approach.