I think the main point against S turns is that they will not actually lose that much altitude -- unless you turn 90 degrees or more. If you are so high that full flap spoiler and slip are not going to work, then try to do S turns, but get nervous about it and don't head the nose more than 45 degrees away from the runway, you're just not going to get down that fast, and the runway will still slide along below you.

Then there is always the Marty Eiler special: Full spoiler, point the nose at the ground, go VNE to 5 feet off the deck. Even accounting for the float in ground effect, it uses up gobs of altitude.

John Cochrane.